


Written Across My Heart

by Missicle, SodomyandCocktails



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Angst, Anxiety, Crushes, Cute, Drama, Eventual Happy Ending, Eventual Relationships, Eventual Romance, Falling In Love, First Kiss, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, M/M, Minor Sawamura Daichi/Sugawara Koushi, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Pining, Slow Burn, Soulmate-Identifying Marks
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-08-04
Updated: 2019-02-26
Packaged: 2019-06-20 10:24:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 24
Words: 37,171
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15532182
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Missicle/pseuds/Missicle, https://archiveofourown.org/users/SodomyandCocktails/pseuds/SodomyandCocktails
Summary: How are you supposed to cope when you realize that the person who seems to go out of their way to make your life miserable is actually the person who was predestined to be your soulmate? How do you deal with the fact that the person whose personality is the polar opposite of yours is actually the person you've already fallen in love with through the soulmate magic of skinwriting, through a bond you'd developed over ten years prior?What are you supposed to do when you learn that that person is also on your high school volleyball team?





	1. Fairytales

“...now soulmate magic is one of the most special and misunderstood magics in the whole world! Even after years and years of study, no one is really sure how it works. All we truly know is that everyone in this world gets one special person that they’re destined to be with and that, by the age of twelve, everyone’s souls permanently links with another soul on Earth-- the soul of the person that they’re meant to love forever!

Some people get lucky and find their soulmates early in their lives, and some people struggle and take years and years and years to find them! Luckily, no matter what, we can always talk to our soulmates through the magic of skinscript. To use ‘skinscript’, all someone has to do is write a message on their skin in pen. That message will automatically show up on their soulmate’s skin _in the exact same spot_ that the writer wrote it! Then, once the soulmate reads it, the writing disappears from the skin of both people! And if _that_ isn’t magical enough, there are also certain types of things that you could write that your soulmate wouldn’t be able to see! We still don’t _really_ understand why, but for some reason the human brain filters out certain information when it comes to soulmates. We aren’t able to send or receive specific personal information like our names, our ages, or where we live, and this is sometimes why it can be so hard to find our soulmates-- because we don’t really know who they are! Luckily, we’re not alone in our search, since our soulmate is always only a message away!”

“...But, Nii-san”, frowned Hinata Natsu as she flailed underneath her covers, trying to get a better vantage point from which she could look him directly in the eye, “...If we get linked with our soulmates when we’re twelve, why do I sometimes get drawings on my arm that I didn’t make? They’re not as dark as the letters I’ve seen on _your_ arms, but I’m not even ten yet!”. Hinata grinned as he tried to tuck his little sister in for the third time that night. “People aren’t really sure about _that_ either. The best theory there is is that, when there’s a really strong soul match, soulmates can communicate earlier than twelve. If something happened before you were twelve that completely changed your personality, and would make it so you weren’t a match for that person anymore, you’d still be able to be matched with someone else, but if that _doesn’t_ happen, you get a few extra years of talking to your soulmate!”

With a glimmer in her eye, Natsu looked up at Shōyō and grinned, “Like how you started talking to _your_ soulmate before you could even _read?!”._ The young man turned beet red before exclaiming, “H- hey! Am I here to tell you a bedtime story or for you to roast me?!”.

Natsu rolled over onto her back and sighed the dreamy sigh that only a nine year old girl lost in the thought of love and soulmates could muster. “...I love that story…”, she said quietly to herself, staring up at the ceiling for a moment before whipping her head over to her brother once more, “Tell me the one about the princess who had a dragon for a soulmate next, Nii-chan!” “I already told you your story”, Hinata groaned, “Go to sleep!”. With that, the older boy playfully tossed a stuffed animal at his sister. “No fair!”, the younger redhead whined, “You said you were gonna read to me until I fell asleep!”.

Heaving a great sigh, Shōyō reached over and grabbed one of the more worn fairytale books from Natsu’s shelf, cracking it open and, with a quick glance to his sister, reading, “...Once upon a time, in a land far far away, there was a beautiful princess…”.

 

It wasn’t until half an hour later when Hinata Shōyō, exhausted and slumped over his desk, was finally able to do what which he’d been longing to do nearly all day. He took out his favorite pen-- one that he felt, for some reason, made his usual chicken-scratch handwriting look better, even if only slightly-- and put the tip to his forearm.

 _“Hey”,_ he wrote, _“Are you still up?”._ He lay there, watching the ink dry on his skin, for a long minute. For the last few years, he and the mysterious person that was his soulmate had a standing ‘date’ to chat, even if it was only for a little bit, around 9:00 every night. Hinata was late, and he felt terrible, but Natsu was in a really feisty mood and _really_ didn’t want to go to bed. The sibling’s mother had asked Shōyō to step in and try to read to her, as Natsu adored her big brother, and would at least sit still for two minutes if he was involved.

The young redhead’s face suddenly burnt pink again when he remembered Natsu’s casual comment: _“Like how you started talking to_ **_your_ ** _soulmate before you could even_ **_read_ ** _?!”._ Shōyō sank his head into his arms for a moment-- but just a moment-- before pulling back and fixing his eyes on the text he’d written once more.

It was true, of course: Hinata had made first contact with his soulmate when he was little more than five years old. And, while it wasn’t uncommon for people to cycle through a few different soulmates as their personalities changed and developed before ultimately settling on one when they came of age, Shōyō would bet anything that he’d been talking to the same person his whole life.

He remembered the day he got his first skinscript message well. He was playing in the backyard, digging through a sandbox when, all of a sudden, his arm started to burn. It didn’t really _hurt,_ he remembered, but it was a very strange and unfamiliar sensation. When he looked down, he was shocked to find that there were letters on his skin-- letters that he hadn’t written!

“Mommy! Mommy!!!”, he cried as he skidded into the house. His mother, who’d been entertaining one of the neighbors at the time, stood and frowned. “Shō, honey, what did I tell you about coming in straight from the sandbox? Now the whole kitchen’s a mess!”, she tutted as she squatted to begin dusting the small child off. “Mommy!”, Shōyō exclaimed, grasping his arm, “There were letters!!! On my arm!!! It started hurting and I looked and there were letters there!!!”. The redheaded woman looked over to her friend, then back to her son. “Oh, Shōyō, you must’ve been watching too much tv”, she laughed, standing up and brushing off her own knees. Shōyō, however, shook his head vehemently. “No, Mommy, I promise!!! Letters!!!”. “Well, what did the letters say?”, asked the neighbor curiously, setting down her cup of tea as she looked on. Shōyō frowned and studied the floor. “I…”, he started, “I… dunno. I can’t read…”.

Hinata’s own mother laughed and took her place back at the table. “Shōyō’s _always_ had a _very_ active imagination”, she said, smiling brightly, “I wouldn’t be surprised if he saw some romance movie on tv last night and this is what’s come of it.” “You know, Shōyō”, smiled the neighbor, “There’s one way to find out for sure if what you’re saying is true. Come, sit with us.” Turning back to the elder Hinata, she asked, “May I borrow a pen?”. Shōyō’s mother’s smile was taut as she nodded, “O- of course. But I’m telling you, nothing is going to come of this… I’ve _never_ heard of someone making contact so young…”. “You never know”, shrugged the other woman as she uncapped the pen, “Maybe his soulmate is older than he is! There are tons of plausible explanations!” “I guess…”, mumbled the redheaded woman.

“Now, Shōyō. What I want you to do is take this pen and write anything on your arm!”, the neighbor said, smiling as she offered the utensil to the young boy. Shōyō reached for it apprehensively, looking to his mother to see if this was actually okay. Taking a deep breath, the older woman nodded, even if it was against her better judgement. “Can… can I draw a picture?”, Shōyō asked, a little bit of excitement peeking through the fear. The neighbor nodded, and with that the young boy set off doodling on his arm. When he was done, he held his creation up to his mother and her friend to show them his work. “See!”, he grinned, “I’m real good at drawin’ doggies!”. The elder Hinata’s smile relaxed a little bit, as she cooed, “Beautiful doggy, Shō-kun. Now, why don’t you go back outside and--”. All of a sudden her face fell, as she watched the ‘doggy’ her son had drawn fade into his skin. This could only mean one thing…

“It’s settled!”, grinned the neighbor, “Your son has a soulmate!” “A- a- at _five?!”,_ the redheaded woman stammered, “How is this _possible?!”._ As the two women playfully bickered back and forth, Shōyō leaned into the conversation and asked, “Mama, what’s a ‘soulmate’?”.

 

Hinata was suddenly shaken from his embarrassing memories by the realization that his message had finally faded from his skin-- meaning his soulmate had read it! The response came, short and succinct:

_“Yeah”_

_“I’m sorry I’m late”,_ Hinata scrawled, _“My sister wouldn’t go to bed so I had to read to her. How was your day?”_

 

Hinata couldn’t lie: it definitely got challenging at times, wanting to tell things to your soulmate but not being able to because of the mysterious and seemingly supernatural restrictions on information that could be exchanged. He wanted to know _everything_ about his soulmate. But, in truth, he took a great amount of comfort in their nightly conversations, and spent nearly every day looking forward to them, waiting until he was able to talk to the person he was supposed to spend the rest of his life with. The conversations were mostly casual, but Shōyō oftentimes felt as if the mysterious person on the other side of the text was truly his best friend, who he could share just about anything with.

And as they began their nightly banter, the little redhead found himself wishing more than anything that he could hurry up and meet his soulmate soon.

 


	2. Dinosaurs

Tsukishima Kei looks at his clock for what feels like the millionth time in the last five minutes; both he and his soulmate had this ongoing tradition where they would talk to each other every night around 9 o’clock and, while it was never that unusual for either of them to be a little late, he never liked it when either of them were (not that he would ever admit that). Kei begins to get lost in thought, unwinding after a long day of classes and volleyball practice, thinking about conversations he’s previously had with his soulmate. He remembers their daily routines and thinks back to funny and interesting stories they’ve both told and that puts a smile on his face just thinking about it. But the one thing that always stayed with him was his first time talking to his soulmate.

It was September 27th, Kei’s 5th birthday. It was also the day he inadvertently began communicating with his soulmate. He remembered seeing lots of info on soulmates on the TV, learning that people are locked into their soulmates at the age of 12, and that they communicate through something called ‘skinscript’. He always wondered when he could begin talking to his soulmate. The idea of being with someone that was meant for you seemed so whimsical. That opinion changed once his parents began to have trouble. Kei saw his family split up firsthand and realized that not all soulmates are meant to stay together. That led him to question the point of a soulmate at all if it doesn’t automatically lead to someone you actually want to be with for life.

  
That day, after he finished dinner and opened up his presents from his family, he went up to his room to begin playing with his new toys. He got a few different gifts but by far his favorite of them all was a book with lots of pictures and information about all kinds of dinosaurs; it even came with a little green dinosaur toy as well (which he still keeps on his shelf today). Looking through the book, it had lots of cool pictures in it of a bunch of triceratops, tyrannosaurus, and stegosaurus among a bunch of others that he’d never even heard of. So Kei decided to try writing out some of the words in the book. He didn’t have any paper besides his brand new book so he began writing on his arm, spelling out, ‘c o e l..’, before looking back down at his book to check his spelling. Once he looked back to his arm he noticed that the writing had disappeared.

  
He looked in awe and quickly ran downstairs and asked his mother what just happened. “I swear the letters were right there!”, Kei exclaimed. “What do you mean dear? I don’t understand?”, stated his mother quickly. “Well, I went upstairs to go read my new book, and I decided I would try and spell out some of the hard words in it… But I didn’t have any paper, so I used my arm, then next thing I knew all the letters I wrote down disappeared!” “Are you sure you actually wrote it on your arm, dear?”, asked his mother. But suddenly after that Kei felt a strange, warm, almost burning sensation on his arm, causing him to flinch instinctively, leading them both to look down at his arm and see a crude-looking picture of what appears to be a puppy, which, after a few seconds disappeared almost like it was never there to begin with. “You know what this means, Kei? This means you have a soulmate! At such a young age, that means have a very strong bond with your soulmate.”

  
Kei snaps back to reality when he feels the now very familiar and warm feeling that is skinscript. Looking at the clock he sees that it is now just past 9:30; he was lost in thought for over 20 minutes. Remembering he has a message waiting for him, he looks down to read, “Hey, are you still up?” He smiles at the message for a second before it disappears, he picks up his pen to respond a short and simple “Yeah.”  
He can feel his soulmate begin to write, “I’m sorry I’m late, my sister wouldn’t go to bed so I had to read to her.” “How was your day?” So Kei begins his rundown of his day, as they begin to lose themselves in conversation just like most nights, and everything about their interactions just feels comfortable, right.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've been looking forward to writing this and I'm so glad to be able to do this with Missicle. This is my first attempt at writing a fic so I hope you all enjoy it.


	3. Soulmate Debate

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hinata and Kageyama chat on their walk home from volleyball practice.

“Hinata.”

“Hinata.”

“Hey, _Dumbass.”_

“HEY.”

 

“Wh- _OW!_ What the hell, Kageyama?!”, Hinata cried, after a volleyball thrown from close proximity made contact with the side of his head. The dark-haired boy frowned, “I was talking to you and you just spaced out. If anyone deserves a ‘what the hell’, it’s _you,_ dumbass.” The redhead blushed slightly as he murmured a quick apology to his setter.

“It’s not like you to be lost in _thought,_ you know”, Kageyama said, glancing to the smaller boy out of the corner of his eye as the two walked home from volleyball practice one evening. “W- what’s that supposed to mean?!”, huffed the fiery redhead. “Just what I said”, Kageyama shrugged, “You’re not the kind of person who tends to get lost in thought. You even seemed distracted during practice today. So, um. If-- if you need to talk about whatever it is that’s on your mind, you can talk to me… if you want…”. Very quietly, at the end of this statement, the dark-haired boy appended a mumbled, “dumbass”.

In truth, Hinata _knew_ that he’d been distracted, but he just couldn’t help himself; the night prior, he and his soulmate had been up nearly all night talking, to the point where his hand was cramping and his skin was almost raw from all the friction. It was the most they’d ever spoken at one time, and he really felt like the small crush that naturally came with someone that you know you’re supposed to be with forever had blossomed into something almost unmanageable-- something truly unbelievable, when he considered that this was still a person he’d never actually met.

“Um-- Kageyama-- do you ever talk to your soulmate?”, Hinata asked, his cheeks growing pink with the slight embarrassment of such a forward question. And, while Kageyama’s natural instinct was to react to such a question explosively, he quickly stopped himself, realizing that the sudden, random outburst from his friend was likely Hinata opening up to him, as he’d _literally just_ offered for him to do. “Uh”, Kageyama started, clearing his throat before he continued, “I mean, yeah, sometimes, I guess…”. “Do you talk every day?”, pressed the redhead. “What?”, snapped Tobio incredulously, “Who has the time to talk to their soulmate every day?”. Hinata’s silence more than answered his question for him.

“I mean”, started the blue-eyed man once more, trying to backpedal a little bit, “I don’t really see the point in talking to my soulmate regularly at this point in my life. I think it’s more important to focus on school and stuff. It’s just like… it’s so incredibly, insanely unlikely that it’s someone I’ll meet so early on in my life, so until I get to college or whatever, I don’t even see the point, you know?”. Hinata nodded slowly. He knew that what Kageyama was saying was true; the odds of your soulmate-- the one person out of roughly seven and a half _billion_ people-- growing up in your hometown and going to the same school as you was insanely small. In fact, the only people he’d ever even _heard_ of who were soulmates that met in their youth were Daichi and Sugawara, which, he reasoned, had to make his own odds even worse, considering that they were people he knew personally.

“But…”, argued the redhead, “Why wouldn’t you want to make your bond with this person stronger if you had the opportunity?” “Why should I?”, countered the setter. “Well… what if you two ran into each other in real life, but because you knew nothing about your soulmate, you just walked right past one another, and then it took you _years_ to find each other again! You would’ve missed out just because you didn’t take the time to get to know each other!”. “Well”, frowned Kageyama, shifting uncomfortably as they walked, “...if you can’t exchange any personal information with your soulmate, how do you know that _you’ll_ recognize them?”.

This made the redhead think for a moment. He honestly didn’t have a solid answer, but when he spoke, it was with words borne from his heart: “I just will!”, he grinned. Kageyama rolled his eyes and shook his head. After a momentary silence, the taller boy said, “So let me get this straight… somehow, on top of everything else in your life-- volleyball, school, the _hour_ it takes you to get to and from Karasuno-- you’ve been talking to your soulmate _every single day_ since you’re _twelve?!”._ “Uh-- well-- yeah-- but”, the redhead mumbled, blushing profusely, “we’ve been talking every day since I turned five.”

“...”

“...”

“...Bullshit.”

“It’s not bullshit!”, Hinata exclaimed, jumping up as if the degree of enthusiasm he displayed could somehow relate proportionally to his honesty, “We started talking just a little bit after I turned five!”. “That’s not even possible, Dumbass”, scoffed Kageyama. “It _is!_ ”, Hinata cried, “Ask my mom! She was there! ...I mean, she didn’t believe it either, but it happened!”

After a moment’s thought, Kageyama shrugged. “I still don’t believe you, but whatever. I still think it’s crazy that you talk to your soulmate _every day._ How do you find the time?”. Hinata shrugged. “It’s mostly just before I go to bed, really.” Tobio nodded thoughtfully.

The two were silent for a minute before Hinata grinned up at his best friend, “And you’re _sure_ you don’t secretly talk to your soulmate every night around nine o’clock?”. Kageyama glared down at the redhead. “For the last time, Dumbass, I’m _not_ your soulmate. Look--”. Kageyama quickly pulled out a pen from his backpack and, uncapping it, drew a small line on the top of his left hand. Hinata quickly looked to his own left hand and frowned deeply when there was nothing there. Satisfied that he’d proven his point, Kageyama tucked his pen away and the two continued walking.

“Stop pouting”, the dark haired boy said sternly, “I have no control over it.” “I know”, Hinata sulked, “But how awesome would it have been if we were soulmates?”. Kageyama raised an eyebrow. “I mean… I guess it’d be okay, but… what makes you say that?”. The smaller man grinned broadly. “I mean-- can you imagine how amazing it’d be to be soulmates with your best friend? And then-- like, to be soulmates with someone who’s _amazing_ at volleyball?! That’d be the best!”. “Well”, laughed Kageyama, “Why don’t you go ask the rest of our team if any of _them_ are your soulmate?”. “Yeah”, scoffed Hinata, “and give Yamaguchi and Tsukishima another reason to be assholes…”. At this, Kageyama laughed out loud. “Oh man, could you _imagine?_ With how much Tsukishima hates us, if he were either of our soulmates? That would be _hilarious.”_ With a completely straight face, Hinata looked to his friend and replied, “...You and I have a very different opinion on what’s funny.”

“Besides”, continued Hinata, “What the hell was with him today? He was such a jerk!”. “To be fair”, shrugged Kageyama, “You _did_ serve the ball into the back of his head. _Twice.”_ “Yeah, but I wasn’t trying to!”, cried Hinata, “He didn’t have to be so _mean_ about it!”. Kageyama nodded, “I agree. I mean, everyone _knows_ you can’t serve…”. “HEY!!! WHOSE SIDE ARE YOU ON?!”.

“Man”, Hinata sighed, as the two continued on their trek home, “I really feel sorry for whoever gets stuck with Tsukishima. He’s so mean to _everyone_ for no reason.” “Yeah”, Kageyama laughed again, “It sucks having him on our volleyball team, and that’s just for three years. Imagine being stuck with him for _life!”._ “I’m just glad my soulmate’s, like, the complete opposite. They’re patient, kind, compassionate…” “And, apparently, they actually _like_ talking to you”, jabbed Kageyama, eliciting yet another glare from Hinata. “Why do I even bother walking home with you?”, sighed the redhead.

 


	4. Practice Doesn't Make Perfect

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hinata accidentally practices some unnecessary drills.. to the back of Kei's head

As Kei feels the second volleyball come crashing into his head in the last ten minutes, the only thing he can hear around him besides the ringing in his ears are the cries of “Tsukki!” and “Are you okay Tsukishima?”. He knows exactly where the ball came from and who served it and he is ready to explode; he turns around, stares deep into Hinata’s eyes and yells, “Hey dumbass, watch where you serve that thing!”. The look on Hinata’s face is one of pure terror; the already small orange haired boy appears to be melting from his gaze alone.  “Oh my god, oh my god, I’m so sorry Tsukishima!”, Hinata cries, bowing furiously. Kei takes one step forward and both Daichi and Sugawara are already springing to action, looking ready to stop a fight.

Daichi stops Tsukishima before he can move any more. “Take it easy Tsukishima”, the captain says gently, “it was an accident. Are you okay? Do you need to see the nurse?”. Tsukishima glowered, “I’m okay, but I won’t be if I keep getting pelted in the back of the head by that moron.” “Why don’t you take a seat on the bench and cool off, it’ll help”, suggests Daichi while pointing over beside Yamaguchi.

Kei leaves the situation in a huff and heads over to the bench to sit beside Yamaguchi, who immediately cries, “Tsukki, are you sure you’re okay?! That’s the second time you’ve been hit.” “Shut up Yamaguchi.” “Sorry, Tsukki.”

“Why is our team full of morons?”, Kei sighs irritatedly while clearly staring directly at Hinata and Kageyama. Yamaguchi begins to laugh, “But you can’t deny that they are both really good at volleyball.” That gets an audible grunt from Kei. “Whatever, I don’t even know why I bother playing, this game is so tiring.”  “You know why you play”, grins the freckled boy, “You told me it was because your soulmate was really interested in the sport and that got you willing to play… Is that a blush Tsukki!” “Tadashi! Drop it. I just want to be with my thoughts.”

Kei is still sitting on the bench with his eyes closed until he suddenly gets a nudge on his shoulder. “Hey Tsukki, practice is over”, Yamaguchi called, “Let’s head home. Are you sure you’re fine? You spaced out for quite a while.” “Of course I’m okay Tadashi, drop it. Let’s go before we get sucked into more questions by the idiot duo; I don’t want them to ask me to help them study any more than I already do.” “Okay Tsukki.”

Following their normal path back home walking in comfortable silence, music playing in Kei’s ears, Yamaguchi asks the blonde a question. “What was that?”, asks Kei, slipping his headphones around his neck. “I was asking if you were thinking of quitting the volleyball team”, the freckled boy repeated,  “You seemed pretty annoyed earlier and you’ve only been getting more annoyed since you started tutoring Hinata and Kageyama.” “Don’t worry Tadashi, I’m not going to quit the team, and I’m not going stop tutoring them… I’m just annoyed at their inability to learn things, and that includes learning how to not serve into the back of their teammates head.” “Okay I believe you. Well this is my street. Have a good night Tsukki”, Yamaguchi says, beaming like always when they part ways, “You too, see you tomorrow.”

As Kei continues on walking to his house he is reminiscing about how he got into volleyball. Kei never cared much for any sports but his soulmate seemed so attached to volleyball for so long. Sometime when he was 11 or 12 he remembers the shift in his soulmate clearly.

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“I just saw the best game of volleyball ever, they were moving so fast on the court and their jumps like WOAH!”, wrote his soulmate. “When did you start watching volleyball?” Kei responded. Soon the message came back, reading, “This the first game I’ve ever seen! It was playing on a tv on my way home and I couldn’t stop watching, and the one team had this player named ‘The Little Giant’ and he was SO GOOD!!” “Wow you seem excited :).” “Of course I am, I really want to play volleyball, it’s so cool!!!” “Then you should look into it, I’m sure you could find someway to play.”

The next day he received another message from his soulmate about volleyball, reading, “They don’t have a volleyball club at my school, I’m so sad. :( They said I could start my own club though. So that’s what I’m gonna do and next thing you know I will be better than any of the players I saw in that game!” “I hope that goes well for you”, Kei responded quickly, “You should try playing too! I know you would have so much fun.” With a frown, Kei wrote, “I never was one for sports, my brother was always the athletic one.” “Give it a try please! Let me know if you like it!”, his soulmate wrote almost pleadingly.

Kei never really did want to play volleyball after what happened with his brother, but he was always looking for more connections to have with his soulmate. It was settled right then and there: he would give volleyball a try.

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

When Kei gets home that evening, nostalgia still fresh in his mind, he heads straight upstairs to his room and pulls out a pen and writes to his soulmate, “How was your day? Mine was pretty rough but talking to you is always a good stress reliever.”


	5. Study Group

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hinata attends his bi-weekly study group.

“W- what do you mean you can’t come today?!”

“I’m sorry, but I’m sick. I can’t really do anything about it.”

“Can’t you just bring a pack of tissues or something?!”

“Sure. And then when I throw up because of the stomach bug I’ve had since last night, I can use the tissues to mop it up. Sounds like a plan.”

“.....sorry. Feel better, Kageyama.”

“Thanks. Good luck today.”

“Thanks….”

 

Hinata Shōyō found himself filled with a tremendous sense of dread as he trudged to the Sendai Public Library that Saturday afternoon, knowing that he was just a little bit less protected from Tsukishima’s wrath than usual, now that he knew that Kageyama wouldn’t be joining him at their biweekly tutoring session. If nothing else, at least Yamaguchi generally acted as a buffer for Tsukishima’s meanness-- at least, to some degree-- a thought which managed to bring Hinata some comfort in spite of everything else. 

That comfort, however, would be very short lived; the moment the redhead came within sight of their usual study table, a sudden memory flooded back to him of a conversation between the four boys after practice earlier that week.

_ “By the way”, Yamaguchi had said in the locker room that evening, “I’m going to be away visiting family this weekend. Tsukki promised he’d still tutor you guys, and he promised he’d do his best to be patient. Just, try not to get on his nerves  _ **_too much_ ** _ , okay?”. _

A shudder went up Hinata’s spine as his stomach lurched inside him. How could he have forgotten something so important? (He knew how, of course: Yamaguchi’s comment was an interjection in the midst of a heated debate between Hinata and Kageyama as to who screwed up their quick in the last set of the evening. It was easy to forget minor interruptions when he was doing his best to prove Kageyama wrong.)

“...Where’s the King?”, Tsukishima asked with a frown upon glancing up from his book and noting that the redhead was alone. Hinata pulled out the chair across from the tall blocker and cautiously seated himself, glancing around the library before saying, “Uh-- well-- I just called him and-- uh… apparently he has a stomach bug.” “A stomach bug?”, Tsukishima repeated skeptically, one eyebrow raised as he spoke. The smaller boy nodded. “So, uh”, he started, forcing himself to chuckle, “I guess it’s just gonna be you and me today, huh?”. The blonde rolled his eyes dramatically and closed his book, setting it down on the table before him. “Great.  _ Fantastic.  _ If I had to be stuck with just one of you, I’m  _ so glad _ it’s the dumber of the two.” “H- hey!!!”, Hinata exclaimed, though Tsukishima seemed to take no note of his indignation as he pulled his backpack up from the floor.

“Let’s get started”, the blonde sighed, “Let me see your math homework from last week.” “Oh! Uh--”, Hinata stammered as he fished through his own backpack, “You see, the thing is…”. Finally procuring the sheet of paper he’d been looking for, Hinata separated it from his other things and slid it across the table. Tsukishima stared at it for a moment before flatly commenting, “...It’s blank.” “Yeah”, laughed the smaller blocker, “I just, I dunno, I thought  maybe it might make more sense if I brought it here so you and Yamaguchi could explain what I was doing wrong.” “The only problem with that is that you haven’t  _ done  _ anything yet”, frowned the blonde. “I… I didn’t really understand what to do”, Hinata confessed, fishing through his backpack for a pencil for the sole reason of having an excuse to not look Tsukishima in the eye. 

The blonde seemed to consider this rationale for a moment before sighing yet again. “You’re an idiot”, he said blankly, “Well. Let’s start with this type of problem here. Do you know the formula you’d use to solve it?”

To Hinata’s great relief, it seemed that what Yamaguchi had said was true, as the blonde really was approaching their tutoring session with more patience than normal (even if that wasn't saying too much). Tsukishima had only criticized Hinata a handful of times by the end of their first half hour, and Hinata was finally feeling confident in his ability to solve the type of problem Tsukishima had painstakingly taught him the ins and outs of. 

“Now”, continued the tall blonde, “taking what you just learned, the next step is to plug it into  _ this  _ equation, multiply it by the sum of  _ this  _ over  _ this  _ plus  _ that,  _ and then you’ll actually be able to do the problems on this sheet.” “Wait”, frowned Hinata, “I don't understand. Can you go back and do that first part again?” Without looking up from his scratch paper, Tsukishima sighed, “Just  _ watch  _ what I’m doing, Dumbass.” “I can't  _ see  _ what you’re doing”, Hinata pouted, “Your hand is in the way.” “Not my problem”, snapped the taller of the two. Hinata did his best to peer around Tsukishima’s hand, but after a minute of trying and failing, the redhead grew impatient and frustrated.

“...What do you think you’re doing?”, the blonde asked blankly. “Well, if I can’t see what you’re doing, I’m not going to be able to learn how to do it”, Hinata replied, pulling out the chair next to Tsukishima and seating himself before leaning in to inspect what the blonde had done so far. Tsukishima seemed to appraise him for a moment before continuing, “...and then, when you carry this number over  _ here,  _ this six becomes a four, and then you can take  _ this  _ and  _ this _ and multiply them by the exponent…”.

Tsukishima continued on and on about  _ numbers  _ and  _ formulas  _ and  _ procedures,  _ and, despite his very best efforts, Hinata found himself growing sleepy. He wasn’t sure if it was just because the blonde’s words were intensely boring, but somehow, Tsukishima’s voice seemed to be more pleasant to listen to than usual. His tone was always so serious, but there was something comforting-- something  _ comfortable--  _ in the way he spoke. Hinata felt himself growing warm, a light blush covering his cheeks as he did his best to stay focused on the countless numbers scribbled across lined paper.

 

“...Are you fucking kidding me?”

Hinata sat bolt upright at these words and looked around the room in a panic. He slowly turned his head to face Tsukishima, who was still seated beside him, and found, upon meeting his gaze, that the blonde was  _ pissed.  _

“W- what?!”, Hinata exclaimed, trying his best to sound innocent, and to chase the sleepiness out of his voice. “You _know_ what”, frowned the blonde, slamming the algebra textbook shut, “You fell asleep while I was tutoring you!” “I--”, started Hinata, trying to decide whether to make an excuse or simply flat out lie, “I-- I did _not!”._

Tsukishima frowned. “Did you learn  _ any  _ of what I just taught you? I mean-- do you even  _ have  _ a brain that’s capable of taking in information, or is there just a partially-deflated volleyball sitting inside your skull?”. “I do too have a brain!”, Hinata huffed, feeling himself flush with indignation, “It’s perfectly normal  _ and  _ functional! It’s not  _ my  _ fault that you’re just really boring!”. 

“Boring?!”, scoffed Tsukishima, “You know what’s  _ boring?  _ Having to give up two of my Saturdays a month to tutor your idiot ass.” “W- well”, started Hinata, jumping up from where he sat, “If you don’t want to tutor me, then don’t! I didn’t ask for this!”. Tsukishima blinked twice as Hinata began gathering his things. “...um,  _ yes you did.  _ You and the King don’t leave me  _ alone. _ ” “Well, if that’s how it is, then just stop tutoring us!”, Hinata said, yelling in as loud a whisper as he dared in a library.

“Fine”, laughed Tsukishima, grabbing his own book before standing and pushing in his chair. “See ya, Dumbass.” As the blonde started walking away, Hinata called after him, “I hope you feel real good about yourself when we lose the championship because I can’t play, because  _ you  _ didn’t tutor me!”. 

Something in this statement seemed to rub Tsukishima the wrong way as, immediately, the blonde turned around and approached the table where Hinata sat petrified once more. Leaning down and speaking in a low whisper, Tsukishima hissed, “Your shitty grades are  _ not  _ my problem. I did this as a favor for the team, but at the end of the day, it’s not my fault if you’re too much of an idiot to be helped. Maybe you’ll be able to play on the team next year when they make you  _ repeat year one. _ ”

With that, Tsukishima spun on his heel and quickly exited the library, leaving Hinata sitting at the table with tears welling up in his eyes.

 

On his long walk home, Hinata had tried to call Kageyama to commiserate, only to find that the setter’s cell had apparently been turned off, as all calls were going directly to voicemail. He left him a message and continued towards home, his heart heavy as he walked. 

On an unusual impulse, Hinata stopped walking and dug through his backpack. It took him a long minute to find what he was looking for, but finally, once he did, he threw his bag back over his shoulder and continued on his trek.

_ “Hey”,  _ he wrote on his arm with his newfound pen as he walked,  _ “Sorry to bother you in the middle of the day but I was wondering if you’re free? I’m having a really shitty day.” _

The writing sat on his skin for an unusually long time-- several minutes-- before finally fading into the porcelain flesh below. Finally a message came back, reading:  _ “Tell me about it. I’ve just had the day from hell too.”  _ And, while Hinata felt sorry that his soulmate was also having a crappy day, a small part of him was getting butterflies at the thought of them being so deeply connected that a bad day for one guaranteed a bad day for the other, and that a good day would mean just the same. 

Hinata thought over just how much he wanted to share with his soulmate. Did he really want to fill them in on the knowledge that Hinata was  _ failing  _ two of his classes to the point that he needed a peer of his to tutor him?  _ ‘No’,  _ he thought,  _ ‘Maybe by the time I meet them algebra will be a thing of the past. There’s no need to make them think poorly of me now…’.  _ But then, if he didn’t share that he was just being tutored, how could he share what happened, exactly, that made his day so bad?

As he thought about just how much he wanted to explain to his soulmate, another message came through.  _ “I only have a few minutes right now, but if you want to vent I’m here.”  _ Hinata put the tip of his pen to his skin, only to be met with a third.  _ “Plus we always have later, right?” _

_ “Right”,  _ Hinata wrote back,  _ “There’s always later.” _

After some thought, the redhead appended,  _ “Thank you for always being there to make my shitty days less shitty. :) “  _

A minute later, the response came back,  _ “Same to you.” _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ~~i swear i am not going to start every chapter with dialogue between kageyama and hinata~~.


	6. Skin Talk

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hinata and Tsukishima each sit down and have a conversation with their soulmates after a rough day.

Hinata Shōyō excused himself from dinner early that evening, telling his family that he wasn’t feeling well and just wanted to go to bed. He showered quickly and was on his bed waiting by the time it was 8:00pm, even though he knew he wouldn’t be hearing from his soulmate any time too soon. He tried playing with his phone or going on his computer to kill some time, but ultimately, by 8:15, he couldn’t handle the anticipation much more, finally giving in to his impulse and writing a simple,  _ “Hey”,  _ on the inside of his forearm.

Across town, Tsukishima Kei was just finishing up with his homework. Having already eaten and finished with his work for the night, he was finally ready to relax, though Kei was admittedly still feeling annoyed from earlier. He just didn’t understand what that shrimp couldn’t comprehend; he’d explained everything in great detail in an effort to make it as easy as possible for Hinata, yet the redhead still had the nerve to fall asleep on him. The blonde looked at his phone and was unsurprised to find that there was nothing. After all, Yamaguchi was generally the only one who messaged him, and he was away all weekend and was probably busy with family gatherings. He was doing little more than contemplating what his best friend was up to when, all of a sudden, he felt something being written on his arm. He pulled up his sleeve and was surprised to see a simple “Hey” just sitting there. A glance at the clock revealed that it was only 8:15; his soulmate was early. Kei grabbed a pen from his desk and started his response, writing, “Hey. You’re early tonight.”

“Sorry… After the day I had, our conversation was all I really had to look forward to today…”, Hinata wrote, worrying slightly that he was being off-puttingly clingy.

Upon receiving his soulmate’s message, Tsukishima immediately scrawled, “Are you okay? You know I’m here for you if you need me.”

“I’m alright”, Hinata wrote out, upset that he seemed to have inadvertently caused his soulmate to worry, “Unfortunately it’s something I have to deal with kind of often. Today was just worse than usual. Nothing to worry about, though! I feel a lot better now that we’re talking :) “

Tsukishima frowned at his arm. He knew well enough when someone was trying to placate him, but there was a part of him that also felt like he shouldn’t try pushing it too hard, for fear of dredging up unpleasant memories for his soulmate. After thinking for a long moment on what was the most diplomatic response, Kei finally replied, “Well if you need anything don’t hesitate to ask. I’m glad you’re feeling better, talking to you always helps me as well.”

“Oh, that’s right!”, Hinata scribbled quickly, jumping up as he remembered a bit of their earlier conversation, “You said you had a bad day too, right? Are you okay?”

“I’m okay, I just have a hard time handling the idiocy of some people, you know?”, Tsukishima wrote, the fires of irritation and annoyance burning slightly brighter within him as he reflected on what an infuriating afternoon he’d had.  

At this, Hinata gripped his pen a little tighter and felt that his decision to not disclose  _ why  _ his day had been so bad was, in fact, the correct decision to make. “For sure”, Hinata wrote, feeling a little bit self-conscious as he did so, “Some people are just really shitty overall.”

Tsukishima breathed a sigh of relief at this response. It had taken a bit longer to come in than the rest of the messages he’d received from his soulmate, and he worried for a moment that he had inadvertently offended the person he was destined to spend his life with. Figuring, based on his soulmate’s response, that this was a safe topic to keep venting on, Kei continued, “Tell me about it, but it’s nothing I haven’t gotten used to. I try to virtually spell things out for people and no matter how hard I try, it’s like they don’t get it, almost like I’m talking to a brick wall.”

A part of the redhead was beginning to feel bad for himself; he wondered briefly whether his soulmate would still talk to him if they knew that he was doing so poorly in school. After all, didn’t that classify him as an ‘idiot’? However, before he allowed himself to continue too far down this line of thought, the bigger part of Hinata shook himself out of it and remembered that his soulmate was venting to him. There was no more important job for Hinata than to be supportive. Realizing this, he quickly wrote back, “That sounds really rough. :(“, adding, moments later, “Well, if it makes you feel better, I’m always here to listen to every word you say :) “.

The blonde breathed quickly out of his nose. “That’s good”, he wrote back, “I’m glad you are always here to listen to me, unlike some people I know.” Again his thoughts returned to his ‘study buddy’ from that afternoon, and he felt himself being overcome with indignation.  _ ‘How dare he fall asleep while I was tutoring him?!’,  _ he thought exasperatedly to himself, only breaking free from his spiraling state of mind by the feeling of his soulmate writing another message.

“Luckily those people aren’t your soulmate ;)“, Hinata wrote, grinning broadly. A part of him felt like he was going a little too far in how brazen his statement was, but the response that came immediately afterwards quickly assuaged all fears he had.

Kei couldn’t help but smile at the message that appeared on his flesh.  He quickly scrawled back, “Thank god for that”, knowing that he truly and sincerely couldn’t have meant a sentiment more. So far as he could tell, he’d hit the jackpot as far as soulmates were concerned. His just seemed so genuine, so attentive, so real… A part of him couldn’t help but feel bad for whoever would wind up stuck with the boy he’d tutored that afternoon, who was anything  _ but  _ the traits of his own soulmate.

A full minute passed before Hinata managed to work up the courage to write what had been on his mind for months upon months, so to the point where it seemed to be all he could think about. Taking a deep breath, he started slowly, “So… speaking of soulmates… I’ve been wondering a lot lately… What do you think it’ll be like when we finally get to meet?”. Immediately after writing the question mark, he clenched his eyes shut; there was a part of him that was truly worried that his soulmate found him to be excessively needy and clingy, and the moment he wrote his long-thought question out, he immediately regretted it, fearing the worst-- that his soulmate would finally decide that enough was enough and outright reject him.

“Well I think it’ll be rather nice”, Tsukishima wrote, a soft pink dusting his cheeks as he summoned up the courage to be open and direct with his soulmate, “I think we’ll know almost right away, since we already get along so well, you know?” A moment later, curiosity getting the better of him, the blonde added, “Why have you been thinking of that lately?”

Hinata’s heart skipped a beat at his soulmate’s response, though he couldn’t help but feel intimidated by the question posed to him. Again he sat and thought, before eventually just scribbling, “I dunno, we’ve just been talking for so long. I guess I’m getting anxious to meet you.” Moments later, he added, “That’s embarrassing to write lol”, as he felt his face burn hot by the direct confession of his innermost thoughts.

Kei found himself grinning stupidly at his soulmate’s words, though his grin broke out into a full-on smile with the second message he was sent. “Don’t be embarrassed”, he wrote quickly, “I feel the same way honestly. I’ve wanted to meet you for so long. I wish I could know even more about you.” It was true. His soulmate had been such a huge influence over his life for so long, yet the two hardly knew anything about one another. It was an agonizing thought, to care so much for someone who he knew so little about, but it was ultimately his reality.  

Hinata quickly wrote back, “I know :( I wish I could just send you my address and we could meet already.” Mischief stirring in his heart once more, he scrawled, “Even if I could just tell you that I live in                                “. His heart sank when the words ‘Miyagi Prefecture’ failed to fade into his skin with the rest of his sentence. He’d tried time and time again to send his soulmate  _ any  _ personal information at all, but every time the result was the same. “...it was worth a shot. :( “, he added, frowning deeply as he licked his thumb and tried to wipe off the words that refused to disappear.

“Don’t worry about it. It will come with time :)”, Kei wrote back, smiling softly as he thought of his soulmate desperately trying to write down their location. “And when it does think about how great it will finally be.”  As he sat there and reflected on his soulmate’s desperation to meet, another thought occurred to him to share. “Not gonna lie, I’ve tried that a lot as well-- putting down my address, numbers and everything like that, to no avail.”

Hinata grinned broadly at his arm. “That makes me feel better :)”, he wrote, “At least I’m not alone in wanting this all to hurry up!”

“Of course. Remember we are in this together, and we always will be”, the blonde wrote, his heart beating a little quicker as the forwardness of his statement dawned on him.

Hinata felt himself swooning at the words that appeared upon his skin. His cheeks flushed, and as he tried his best to think about something smooth to say back, he absent-mindedly doodled a heart on the inside of his wrist. His own heart sunk when the tiny token of his affection melted into his flesh.

“Omg”, he scribbled as quickly as he could, “I’m so sorry”. He couldn’t think of a time when he’d  _ ever  _ been more embarrassed. While he definitely felt like things with his soulmate had been progressing towards flirting, neither of them had outright done anything so  _ obvious.  _ After a moment, he added, “...talk about embarrassing…”, hoping that perhaps airing his own surprise at what he’d written would soften the blow when his soulmate inevitably turned him down.

Upon looking down and seeing the tiny heart engraved on his wrist, Kei felt as if butterflies had exploded within his chest. His cheeks burnt crimson as, hands shaking, he wrote back, “Don’t be embarrassed, I feel the same way. You mean a lot to me.” As he watched his words fade away, there was a part of him that felt as if his message was incomplete. It didn’t take him too long to realize what he was missing, and within seconds, his soulmate received his own heart-stopping message, reading simply: “♡”.

Though their conversation quickly took a turn towards some of their more normal topics of conversation, both boys felt as if they were considerably closer to the other than they had been before that evening; an important milestone had been reached in their budding relationship, and both could feel it in their hearts and souls. And though neither boy would ever want anything to hurt or upset the other, both found themselves grateful to whoever it was that had hurt their soulmate that day, for surely, without that person, they wouldn’t have had the opportunity to get so much closer so quickly.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi, it's Missicle :D   
> SodomyandCocktails and I wrote this chapter together! We wanted to give a little insight as to how their private soulmate conversations go, but since S&C is mostly writing for Tsukishima, and I'm mostly writing for Hinata, we figured a collaborative effort would be best. :)  
> Also: **the irony!**
> 
> See you all on Monday ^_^


	7. Alone

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yamaguchi hears about Tsukishima's and Hinata's study session

When Kei meets up with Yamaguchi on his way to school Monday, he can tell that Yamaguchi knows all about the fallout with Hinata from Friday. Yamaguchi has a fierce scowl on his face that could rival Kei’s on his worst day; he knew he was in trouble.

“What the hell happened on Friday, Tsukki? I had to hear from Kagayama about you and Hinata blowing up during your study session.” Yamaguchi states right away. Kei already feels trapped, exasperatedly exclaiming, “Hey! Don’t blame me; it’s not my fault he’s an idiot and can’t understand anything. He had the nerve to literally fall asleep on me while I was working _painstakingly_ to try to teach him very basic math.”

“He fell asleep while you were teaching him? Wow…”, Yamaguchi breathes, his face almost turning into a laugh before being quickly covered up with anger once more. “Either way, that doesn’t matter. You two can’t be fighting with each other. You’re both teammates and you know just as well as I do that Hinata has shown improvement since you’ve started helping him.”

Kei glares at Yamaguchi with an annoyed look on his face and coldly states, “Well if he’s shown improvement he can do it himself. I don’t need to baby him throughout high school because he can’t understand basic ideas that are clearly laid in front of him.”

Yamaguchi cuts in with a quick, “But Tsukki…”, before the blonde cuts him off, saying, “NO. Yamaguchi, listen to me: I am _done_ helping them. All they do is annoy me and take up my time. I was being nice but I’m done with that. That’s the end of this discussion.” With that Kei puts his headphones over his ears and raises the volume so he doesn’t have to hear any more rebuttals; he’s already annoyed and still has his entire day ahead of him.

 

Kei’s day goes by slow and everything is different. Morning practice is much quieter. Hinata and Kageyama look over at Kei a few times but never say anything to him and look to be intentionally avoiding being anywhere near him. Yamaguchi spends the day avoiding him as well; he’s seen Yamaguchi spend his time at practice with Hinata and Kageyama and can tell they’re talking about him and that annoys him. Classes go by quickly with no problem as they always do, but once the bell rings for lunch, he sees Yamaguchi get up and leave without him, leaving Kei to eat lunch all alone.

Afternoon practice is more of the same as this morning, although it appears that Daichi and Sugawara have caught on to the distress between the first years and are on a mission to figure out the problem.

“Tsukishima, can we talk?”, came Daichi quickly after they were finished practice. “I don’t mean to impose but I want to know if everything is okay between you and the other first years. I know you don’t always get along with Hinata and Kageyama but it looks like Yamaguchi is avoiding you as well.” “Thank you for your concern, Captain, but everything is fine. It’s nothing to worry about.” Kei was ready to end this conversation right away, go home, and end this terrible day, but Daichi had other plans. “Don’t play that card on me Tsukishima. Don’t take this the wrong way or act like I’m snooping in on your personal life, but it’s obvious that something happened and as team captain I want to make sure it won’t affect the team going forward.”  Tsukishima rolled his neck and sighed, “Honestly, Daichi, talk to them. They’re the ones avoiding me. I’m just done dealing with it.” With that Kei turns away quickly, changes, and leaves, not bothering to talk to anyone or attempt to wait for Yamaguchi, knowing that he would probably leave by himself anyways.

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

After everyone else has left practice Daichi goes up to Suga to give him his findings. “I’m not getting anything from him. If this continues, we’re gonna have a problem. We need to fix this quickly.” “I know”, Sugawara nods, “hopefully things are better tomorrow. If not, we’ll have to try finding things out from the others. We can’t afford to lose any valuable practice time… or worse, lose a member... especially with our last interhigh coming up.” After saying this Suga looks down, a little sad at the possibility of it all. Daichi takes one look at Suga’s face and all he wants to do is cheer up his boyfriend, his soulmate. Putting on a brave face, the captain smiles, “Don’t worry Suga, everything will be okay. We’ve dealt with worse and we’ll get through this together, too. Right, soulmate?”. With this, a smile cracks across Suga’s face as he nods, “Right!”.  Moving closer to Daichi he leans into his lips and gives him a quick kiss, sighing as he pulls away, “I don’t know what I’d do without you Daichi. I love you.” “I love you too, Suga.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I want to thank everyone for the nice comments we have gotten so far, and can't wait to hear more. See you on Thursday :)


	8. Tough Love

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Captain and Co-Captain of Karasuno's volleyball team address the tension among the first years with who they believe to be the origin of that tension.

Hinata Shōyō wasn’t sure how he could possibly have felt any lower than he did after school the following Tuesday. The day prior, he’d had a whopping two tests, which would’ve been too much for him as it was without the tests being in the two subjects he struggled the most with. He was surprised to find that he had received a passing grade on his algebra test. It was only a 72, so it was still a C, but at least it was a passing grade in what was arguably his worst subject! It was only once he arrived in his last class of the day-- English-- that his false sense of self-confidence was shattered.

_ “A 30?!  _ How is it even  _ possible  _ to score a 30?!”, exclaimed an exasperated Yamaguchi after meeting up with the other first years (minus Tsukishima) on their way to volleyball practice. “I don’t know!”, Hinata sobbed, shaking his head in disappointment, “I did my best! I just… I don’t understand the verb tenses or anything at all! Why does English have to be so  _ hard?!”.  _ Yamaguchi frowned deeply. “Didn’t Tsukki go over  _ any  _ of this with you?”, he asked, afraid to hear the answer. Hinata shook his head. “We only worked on math”, he said sadly as the trio approached the gym. “‘s prob’bly why oo  _ passed  _ maff”, Kageyama shrugged as he drank his milk as quickly as he could. Yamaguchi and Hinata exchanged glances before the freckled-first year simpered, “...he’s got a point.”

“But I mean, come on, Hinata”, Yamaguchi sighed several minutes later as the three changed into their practice uniforms, “Couldn’t you have at least  _ tried  _ to pay attention to what Tsukki was saying???”. “I  _ did”,  _ Hinata whined, “But, I dunno. I just got really,  _ really  _ comfy. And, to be fair, the things he was talking about were really  _ boring.” ‘And’,  _ stood out a thought in Hinata’s mind,  _ ‘For some reason, I remember thinking that his voice was unusually pleasant to listen to…’.  _ “Be that as it may”, continued Yamaguchi, “Tsukki and I are volunteering our time. The  _ least  _ you could do is pay attention.” “I know”, Hinata frowned, “I’m sorry. But-- I mean-- to be fair, he didn’t have to be such a  _ jerk  _ about it afterwards!”. Yamaguchi shut his locker and frowned at the smaller boy. “Hinata, you  _ know  _ how Tsukki is. It probably didn’t help that it was just the two of you, and--”.

Suddenly the club room door opened, and the icy chill that set upon the room made it clear who had just entered. Yamaguchi simply shook his head before deeply sighing, “...I’ll meet you guys downstairs.” 

Kageyama had also finished changing and was just about to excuse himself, too, when Hinata’s small hands gripped his shirt.  _ “Don’t leave me”,  _ Hinata hissed, before turning his attention back to pulling on his shorts.

Tsukishima had his headphones on and seemed to be completely ignoring the fact that anyone else at all was in the room. For some reason, this only had the effect of making Hinata even  _ more  _ nervous as he did his best to finish getting dressed. 

“Come onnn”, Kageyama whined, glancing to the door, “We’re gonna be late.” “I’m trying!”, Hinata yelled in a whisper, “My-- stupid-- shoes---!!!”. The small redhead had been doing his best to pull his sneakers on while standing up and had been having considerable difficulty. And, while his problem would’ve been easily resolved had he thought for a moment to  _ untie  _ them, Hinata had, instead, pulled his shoe up with all his might and accidentally toppled over backwards, knocking into the storage shelf as he flailed trying to keep himself upright. With that simple motion, a veritable  _ hoard  _ of volleyballs was unleashed from the top shelf where they’d been stored, as the box they were in tipped over, sending them careening down onto the three first years below. 

Once the onslaught of volleyballs settled, Hinata looked around the room and suddenly remembered that he and Kageyama had not been alone in the room. He glanced over to Tsukishima, who had completely stopped moving in the process of getting changed, volleyballs littering the floor all around him.

As a low rumble called out,  _ “...Hinata…!” _ , and as the redhead felt himself being gripped by an ice cold fear at the sound of Tsukishima’s voice, another voice called out as well-- a louder, clearer voice, but a voice that was arguably just as scary. “Hinata!”, came the voice of Sawamura Daichi, “Stay behind while everyone else goes to practice! We need to talk! And in the meantime, clean this mess up!”.

A petrified Hinata turned around and saw a deathly grim looking Daichi standing in the doorway with a bemused Sugawara standing immediately behind him. 

“Kageyama-kun”, Sugawara smiled sweetly, “You can go to practice.” Kageyama nodded and, with a mumble of ‘sorry’ to Hinata, dashed out of the clubroom as hastily as possible. 

Tsukishima took another few minutes to get himself dressed, but by the time he’d finally vacated the clubroom, Hinata had managed to clean up all of the volleyballs except for the ones that had been in the immediate vicinity of the tall blonde.

Daichi and Sugawara, meanwhile, had seated themselves on one side of the chabudai, and, the moment the last ball touched the inside of the box, Daichi called out, “Hinata! Come, sit”, gesturing to the other side of the table. Hinata obeyed, quaking with every step he took to get to where he was directed.

Daichi sat solemnly with his eyes shut and arms crossed for a few moments before exhaling loudly through his nose and shaking his head. “Hinata, I don’t even know where to  _ start  _ with you…”. “Is this because of my English grade?”, Hinata frowned, unsure of how, exactly, his captain would’ve obtained that information so quickly. At this, Daichi’s eyes snapped open. “English grade?!”, he asked, “Don’t tell me…”. Sugawara repressed a small giggle, casting a mischievous look over at the redhead. “You’ve done it now”, he sang cheerily. 

Hinata’s body went rigid as he realized he’d accidentally outed himself. “I, uh…”, he stammered, “I… took my English test yesterday… and… I… I got a  _ thirty. _ ” “Thirty?”, asked Daichi confusedly, “Out of what? Forty? Fifty?”. Hinata lowered his head before shaking it slowly. “...one hundred”, he said so quietly it was almost a whisper. Hinata braced himself for the onslaught of Daichi’s wrath he was certain he was about to face, but when, after nearly thirty seconds, it didn’t come, he worked up the courage to glance up… and saw that Daichi seemed to have short-circuited.

“Oh dear”, Sugawara tutted, “Now you’ve got him all upset. As if this business with Tsukishima wasn’t enough…”. “Tsukishima…?”, Hinata repeated. “Daichi, sweetheart”, whispered Sugawara, taking the hand of the captain (who had collapsed face-first onto the table) in his and gently kissing it, “I’ll take it from here. You can leave if you want.” A brief head shake affirmed that the captain wanted to, at the very least, sit in on this meeting, even if he himself was at a total loss for words. With that final gesture, Sugawara sat back and folded his own arms.

“You three are making things unreasonably unpleasant for Tsukishima-kun”, Sugawara sighed, shaking his head slightly as he spoke. “‘We three’...?”, Hinata repeated quietly. “Yes”, nodded the older boy, “You  _ three.  _ You, Kageyama, and Yamaguchi.” Hinata exclaimed, “Yamaguchi?! How is  _ he  _ involved in this?! It’s Tsukishima who--”. As soon as Hinata began rambling defensively, Sugawara held up a passive hand. “Let me finish”, he said firmly, “...We heard the full story about what happened on Saturday. I don’t think that anyone is arguing that you were completely in the wrong, correct?”. “Yeah, but--”, Hinata stammered, only to be cut off again. “No ‘but’s”, reprimanded Sugawara, shaking his head once more, “You were  _ wrong.  _ Tsukishima and Yamaguchi take their personal time to tutor you and Kageyama, when I  _ know  _ that there are plenty of things that they’d rather do. But I also know that they look at it as a way of helping improve the team’s chances of success-- just like how you and Kageyama practice your quicks. There’s no denying that you two are an important resource on our team, and they’re doing all that they can to help you guys succeed.” “I know…”, Hinata murmured.

At this, Sugawara slammed his hand on the table so hard that Daichi jumped up. “If you know this, then why did you tell Tsukishima not to even bother tutoring you anymore?!”, Sugawara chastised, his voice nearing a yell as he spoke. “I-- I--”, started Hinata, his eyes bubbling up with tears before he managed to remember why, exactly, he’d said what he said. Shaking the tears off, the redhead continued, “Tsukishima has made it clear that Kageyama and I are nothing but burdens to him! I don’t want to be a bother to someone who clearly doesn’t give a shit about me, and is only helping because other people told him to!”. Sugawara raised an annoyed eyebrow at the feisty first year. “So I suppose that explains your  _ thirty,  _ then, huh?”. “Suga…”, Daichi started, unsure as to when his beloved co-captain had become so aggressive. 

“I-- I’ll find someone else to tutor me!”, Hinata exclaimed, heart pounding as he waited for Sugawara’s response.  _ “Who?”,  _ asked the ash-blond tersely. Hinata wracked his brain for a moment before jumping up and exclaiming, “Yachi! I’ll ask Yachi, and--” “--let her have a nervous breakdown when she encounters the first problem that she can’t help you solve?”

Sugawara sat back and rubbed the back of his neck before leveling his gaze with the energetic redhead. “Let’s be real here, Hinata. Probably the  _ only  _ person who can handle you and that thick skull of yours is Tsukishima. He’s extremely intelligent and, contrary to what his normal affect might have you assume, he doesn’t frustrate easily. When he can’t get through with one method, he sits back and reevaluates and finds another to try. Realistically speaking, unless your parents pay for you to go to a professional tutor, Tsukishima is the best you’ve got.” Hinata’s heart grew heavier as these words sank in but, much to his chagrin, Sugawara wasn’t quite done with his lecture yet.

“Thanks to the argument that you two had, it seems that Yamaguchi is no longer speaking to Tsukishima as well. You four had better get your acts together, because volleyball is about working as a  _ team.  _ Intentionally isolating the one member of your team who needs to be drawn in the most is downright  _ cruel.”  _ Hinata frowned deeply. “I wasn’t intentionally isolating him”, he started meekly, “Yamaguchi--” “I don’t care”, Sugawara said, shaking his head,  _ “You  _ started this mess.  _ You  _ need to find a way to make nice with Tsukishima. If you can’t do that, we can’t have you two on our team. It’s tough, but just like Daichi said when you first signed up, we need  _ team  _ players. If you can’t own up to your mistakes and take the steps to rectify them, then maybe you’re not as much a team player as you thought you were.”

Turning to Daichi, Sugawara asked curtly, “Is there anything else you have to add?”. With a chill running up his spine, the dark-haired captain shook his head ‘no’. Sugawara quickly pushed himself up to his feet then extended his hand to Daichi. “Oh”, he said as one last afterthought, “Whether you accept Tsukishima’s help or not, you need to find a way to get your grades up. ...A  _ thirty? Really,  _ Hinata? You  _ know  _ that if you start failing your classes, Takeda-sensei will have no choice but to bench you until your grades get back up. So that's a problem you need to fix, too.”. The blond shook his head in disapproval before heading out the door. 

“You can take your time coming down”, Daichi added quietly, “I know we just gave you a lot to process.” With that, the captain and co-captain left the clubroom and began walking towards the gym.

“What the hell was that about?”, asked Daichi in total disbelief. Sugawara raised an eyebrow as he captured Daichi’s right hand in his left. “Tough love”, shrugged the blond. Daichi, still stunned, continued, “Why have I never seen you that assertive before?”. A massive grin broke out across Sugawara’s face as he admitted, “Well, normally when we do the good cop/bad cop routine,  _ you’re  _ the bad cop. But this time you seemed a little…  _ preoccupied.  _ So I figured I could step in for you!”. Daichi laughed and shook his head. “That’s my baby”, he grinned, “Always full of surprises!”. “Just wait until the surprise I have for you after practice”, cooed Sugawara, appending a wink at the end of his statement before ducking into the gym.

“W- wait!”, Daichi yelled, chasing after him, “What’s  _ that  _ supposed to mean?!”.

 

Back upstairs, Hinata was conflicted. On the one hand, everything Sugawara said made perfect sense: It  _ was  _ his fault; he  _ didn’t  _ appreciate the effort Tsukishima and Yamaguchi put in; he  _ needed  _ a tutor… desperately. But on the other hand… he still couldn’t quite wrap his head around the concept of trying to extend the olive branch to Tsukishima.

_ ‘Me? Apologize to  _ **_him_ ** _?!’,  _ he thought to himself as he lay backwards on the clubroom floor,  _ ‘Why should  _ **_I_ ** _ apologize, when all he ever does is berate and verbally abuse me? Am  _ **_I_ ** _ not allowed to have standards, too?’.  _

As he lay there and thought, Sugawara’s words repeated in his head:  _ “If you can’t do that, we can’t have you two on our team.”, “We need team players”,  _ and  _ “Maybe you’re not as much a team player as you thought you were.” _

“Shit”, Hinata breathed, sitting bolt upright as a chill ran down his spine, “I need to do  _ something  _ about this....”  
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A few things!
> 
> \- Sorry for any confusion! This was posted earlier by S&C, but I had to do a few edits (as it _is_ my chapter and wasn't ready to go, but I had some potential-work-related things to do today and yesterday. My bad! It's nothing huge. Just some rewording and grammar and stuff, so if you already read it, you didn't miss much. Thank you S &C for trying to help though :)
> 
> \- SodomyandCocktails and I had a whole discussion on grading. Apparently, in the country they're from, a 72 would be an actual good grade. Where I'm from-- as I clarified-- a 72 would be a low C. I just went with what I know because, eh, why not. But I figured I'd offer an explanation for anyone else who was scored differently from how I was.
> 
> \- Also a big thank you to S&C for the shout out to my other OTP in the last chapter, and for tolerating my integrating them into this chapter lol. I just love me some DaiSuga. They're so pure. (Not as amazing as TsukiHina of course BUT STILL ITS A VERY VALID SHIP.)
> 
> \- I promised I would stop starting my chapters with dialogue and here we are!!! It only took eight chapters!!!
> 
> Okay that's it from me lol
> 
> See you all next week :P <3


	9. Making Amends

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tsukishima reaches out to Yamaguchi to try to make up.

It has now been nearly three days since Yamaguchi has so much as talked to Kei. For Yamaguchi, that’s a  _ long  _ time to not reach out. Tsukishima knows that he is being stubborn, but so is Yamaguchi... although he’s not gonna lie, he really misses his friend. Outside of conversations with his family during dinner and his nightly conversations with his soulmate, he’s had very little human interaction over last few days. By midweek Kei is ready to crack; he needs to get his friend back. 

On Wednesday evening, after all of Kei’s homework is finished, he sits and contemplates everything that led to where he was and decides that it’s time for him to do something about his whole situation. He grabs his phone and quickly gets to work. 

**Kei:** Hey can we meet? I’d like to talk.   
**Tadashi:** If you’d like. Where would we meet?   
**Kei:** I was thinking of the park between our houses?   
**Tadashi:** Okay I can meet you there in an hour?   
**Kei:** Sounds good. See you soon.

Kei walks up to the park and sees that it is mostly empty. There is one man walking his dog and a few kids over by the swings making some noise, but besides that it’s very peaceful. He looks down at his watch and sees he is almost 10 minutes early, as he knew he would be, but he didn’t want to risk being late and making things worse with Yamaguchi than they already were. Kei takes this time to sit down at the closest bench, put his headphones on. and begin to compose himself. He replays the events from the last few days in his head once more; he knows Hinata is in the wrong, and he just needs Yamaguchi  to understand why he got so mad, but he knows deep down that he’ll do whatever he has to to get his friend back.

After a few minutes Kei feels a pat on his shoulders. He looks up and, seeing Yamaguchi is there, slides off his headphones and offers him a seat beside him. “How have you been?”, he asks quietly, doing his best to keep his tone measured and even. “I’ve been okay”, Yamaguchi responds quickly, appending moments later, “Why did you ask me to come here Tsukki?”. Hearing the pet name Yamaguchi always gave him makes Tsukishima smile, and makes him think that perhaps he doesn’t have that big of a big hole to climb out of to get his friend back.

“I just wanted to talk”, the lanky boy admits, “I wanted to fix whatever problems are going on. ...I want my friend back.” With a sigh, Yamaguchi turns to the blonde and asks, “Do you even know what you did Tsukki? I mean, do you even know why I’m mad?”. Tsukki furrows his brow for a moment before responding, “I figure you’re still mad about the whole Hinata-and-studying thing? ...I don’t know why you’re so worked up over that, though. It’s not my fault he’s completely incompetent.” 

“Than you really don’t understand _Kei!_ ”, Yamaguchi exclaims frustratedly. Kei was ready to respond when he was abruptly cut off and, instead, is totally taken aback by the use of his first name. “I’m not mad because Hinata has trouble learning things, I’m mad because you can’t stay civil, especially when you’re around people that are supposed to be _our_ _friends_ \-- _our teammates!_ I swear, I don’t understand you sometimes. You are always nice to me, but anytime you’re expected to be nice to anyone else it’s like pulling teeth.” After this Yamaguchi stops, obviously flustered. 

Kei looks on almost in awe, eventually bringing himself to say, “...to think this day would come… When did you become so cool?”. At this Yamaguchi’s mouth drops and he isn’t quite sure how to respond. After a moment, Tsukishima continues, “You of all people should know, why I have a hard time with things like this, Yamaguchi. I have trouble being nice around people because I don’t want people to get close to me. I worry what will happen if someone gets too close and I tend to fear that I could never live up to their expectations, so I always push them away.”  Yamaguchi looks like he’s about to tear up right there as he cries, “but Tsukki, you let me in and look at what that’s led to! Do you really think everyone else would be disappointed in you if you were to let them in-- if you were to be even just a little bit more friendly with them?”.

“I don’t know”, Kei shrugs, “I don’t know how they would react and I don’t know how I’d be able to handle it. I have trouble as it is letting anyone in, but... I suppose I have to try.” Yamaguchi smiles gently and says, “I know it’s hard, Tsukki, but I know you can do it!” With a slight eye roll, Kei replies, “Thanks”. “And while we’re on the subject of things I know you can do”, starts Yamaguchi with a grin, “Have you put any thought into apologizing to Hinata for losing your temper?”. The blonde scoffs and, turning to his best friend, frowns, “Don’t push it…  _ Tadashi. _ ”

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Finally home, Kei is feeling completely drained. He’s not used to opening up emotionally and isn’t quite sure how to feel. It’s only 4 o’clock in the afternoon but all he can feel is the urge to talk to his soulmate. He holds himself off for a few minutes before ultimately giving in to his truest desire, pulling out his favorite pen and writing, “Sorry for messaging so early, I just really wanted to talk to you. I just wanted to apologise if I’ve ever said anything rude or mean to you. I know we don’t know who each other is, but you mean so much to me.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi, it's Missicle! This is SodomyandCocktails' chapter, but they're away right now and can't post. (So, I know it says we collaborated on it butttt it's all S&C's ^^ )


	10. Remorse and Confusion

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hinata gives himself a deadline by which he needs to apologize to Tsukishima.

With the passing of each day that week, Hinata Shōyō found himself growing more and more anxious at the prospect of actually having to make up with Tsukishima. He’d seen him in passing a handful of times and, of course, saw him at practice nearly every day, but he just couldn’t bring himself to actually confront the surly blonde. Hinata doubted that he had anything to say that could make things better, but still he knew he had to try; all of his hopes and dreams-- his entire future in volleyball-- could depend on his apology. 

When Thursday had come and gone without so much as a word from the nervous redhead, Hinata vowed to say  _ something  _ on Friday-- the situation was just too important not to. But when the bell rang on Friday afternoon dismissing classes for the weekend, Hinata felt a wave of panic ring through him as he  _ still  _ hadn’t spoken to Tsukishima.

 

“What are you doing?”

Kageyama’s voice sent chills up Hinata’s spine; he spun around quickly, falling onto his butt from the squatting position he’d previously been in. “W- w- what are  _ you  _ doing, Bakageyama?!”, Hinata demanded. Kageyama stood placidly before him, sipping his milk and appraising the situation. “Walking home from school”, the blue-eyed boy shrugged, “I just got my milk when I saw you acting weird over here, hiding behind that bush.” “I- I- I’m not  _ hiding  _ behind a  _ bush!”,  _ Hinata yelled indignantly. “Oh?”, asked Kageyama curiously as he took another sip of his milk, “Then what  _ are  _ you doing?”. “I- I-”, stammered Hinata, glancing quickly over his shoulder before gasping, “Get down!”.

Kageyama reluctantly obeyed and watched Hinata resume his squatting position behind the bush near the entrance to the school gates. The young redhead seemed to be quaking slightly as he stared off into the distance to the right. Kageyama followed his line of sight and saw that, to his surprise, the object of Hinata’s attention was… Tsukishima. 

Tsukishima and Yamaguchi were slowly walking towards the entrance, presumably heading home from school, and Hinata’s eyes were completely fixed on the taller of the two.  “Uhh, you okay?”, Kageyama asked tactlessly, sipping his milk once more. The redhead shot him a quick glare before turning his attention back to his teammates. “...I need to apologize to Tsukishima”, Hinata said quietly, “I’ve been putting it off long enough.” “Apologize?”, repeated Kageyama, “What for?”. The smaller boy turned slowly and stared blankly at his setter for a long moment before replying, “...for falling asleep on him while he was tutoring me, and for not showing my appreciation for all that he and Yamaguchi do for us?”. Kageyama blinked twice before shrugging and turning his attention back to the other two first years on their team, who were rapidly approaching. “I dunno, Hinata… I really don’t see how any of this is your fault. I think someone else got into your head. The stuff Tsukishima was teaching you was boring as hell, and even if it wasn’t, he didn’t have to be such an asshole about it…”. The redhead mulled this over for a moment before the familiar sound of Yamaguchi’s voice broke through his thoughts. “Are you doing anything this weekend, Tsukki? Cuz I was thinking”, started the freckle-faced teen. Yamaguchi’s voice faded out from Hinata’s mind, only to be replaced with a voice of Hinata’s own, calling out:  _ It’s now or never. _

“Tsukishima!”, he heard himself yell as he popped up  _ completely inconspicuously  _ from the bush the pair had just passed. Both boys jumped out of a mixture of surprise and fear, though the look that remained on each face once the shock wore off was completely different. Yamaguchi looked as if he was doing everything in his power to keep from laughing, whereas Tsukishima looked disgusted and horrified.  _ “What?!”,  _ the blonde choked out. “Uh”, started Hinata, glancing around nervously when the words wouldn’t come, “Can we… uh… can we like,  _ talk?”.  _ Tsukishima quickly looked to Yamaguchi for affirmation before shrugging, “Sure.” “Tsukki”, Yamaguchi whispered loudly, “I think he means  _ just the two of you.”  _ “Oh”, replied Tsukishima, “Well-- uh. I’m walking Yamaguchi home, so--”. 

Suddenly Kageyama popped up from behind the bushes as well, loudly draining the last of the milk from his carton. All three boys jumped at his sudden emergence. “I can walk Yamaguchi home”, Kageyama offered, peering into the small opening in his drink to make sure he’d gotten every last drop. Yamaguchi grinned up at Tsukishima before shaking his head. “Kageyama, why don’t you and I meet Tsukki and Hinata down at Sakanoshita Shop. They can have their conversation and we can get some meat buns… or  _ milk,  _ or whatever.” “Sure”, grinned Kageyama, and before either of the middle blockers could voice a complaint, the two were headed off down the road.

Hinata slowly climbed out of the bush and approached the tall blonde. “Um… well…”, he started, unable to really say that which was on his mind. Tsukishima glanced around and noted that the two were far from alone, as a large portion of the student body was still trickling out of the school grounds. “Uh… why don’t we go somewhere a little more private to talk?”, Tsukishima asked nervously. He had no way of anticipating what it was that Hinata could possibly have had to say, but he could only assume that it would only serve to irritate him further. With that in mind, he wanted to be as far away from other people as possible in case he felt the need to blow up on the smaller redhead. “Oh-- uh-- sure”, Hinata agreed, “...is the courtyard okay?”. 

 

Minutes later the two middle blockers were seated on a bench in the secluded courtyard of their school, sitting in uncomfortable silence. “Um, so…”, started Hinata after the quiet had become overwhelming, unsure of where to go next.  _ ‘If you can’t apologize, we can’t have you on our team’,  _ called out the half-remembered words of Sugawara, which had gotten slightly distorted over time.

“Tsukishima”, frowned Hinata, “I’m sorry that I fell asleep during your lesson. It wasn’t that I was  _ bored.  _ I just remember feeling really warm and really comfortable. And, well… I don’t know, your voice is really…  _ soothing.”  _ “Soothing?”, repeated Tsukishima flatly, eliciting a nod from the smaller boy. “Yeah. I don’t know. It’s weird, but I was more comfortable than anything. I honestly tried really really hard to stay awake, but for some reason I just…  _ couldn’t.  _ But it’s not because I’m not grateful for the time and energy you and Yamaguchi sacrifice for me and Kageyama. I am-- especially after my last English test.” Tsukishima snorted. “I heard you got a thirty”, he said, doing his best not to outright laugh. Hinata’s frown deepened.  _ “Yeah”,  _ he admitted, “I got a thirty. And it was all because I thought I could do it without your help.” 

Tsukishima looked around uncomfortably for a moment before sighing, “Well, I guess if  _ you’re  _ apologizing, I should, too. ...I’m sorry for not being more patient with you. I shouldn’t have blown up the way I did.”

The two fell into silence once more, though this time it wasn’t quite as strained. After a few minutes of watching the wind blow the leaves around the cobblestone courtyard, Hinata finally worked up the courage to look up at the blonde. “So, are we good?”, is what he would’ve asked, if he hadn’t found himself inexplicably at a total loss for words the moment Tsukishima’s golden eyes met his. He felt his face grow warm-- another reaction which he could not account for-- and his heart began beating as if it were trying to escape his chest.

Hinata knew he’d been staring at the other middle blocker’s eyes for too long. He knew it was only a matter of time before he was called out on it. But for some reason he found himself utterly transfixed, unable to so much as blink, let alone look away. And, perhaps most bewildering, he found himself fighting off the impossibly strange impulse to lean in closer to the blonde…

“Well, is that all you wanted to talk about?”, asked Tsukishima, suddenly standing up from the bench. “Oh!”, remarked Hinata, reeling now that the spell had been broken, “Uh-- yeah, I guess so!”. “Alright, well. I forgive you if you’ll forgive me”, shrugged Tsukishima as he gazed off in the opposite direction of Hinata, rubbing the back of his neck as he did so, “Just don’t expect us to suddenly be  _ chummy,  _ okay?”. Hinata leapt up and grinned at the blonde, who still seemed to be avoiding his gaze. “Works for me!”, the redhead chimed, “Now let’s go meet up with Yamaguchi and Kageyama! If we hurry we could probably catch up to them before they even get to Ukai’s place!”. 

 

On the walk home from their impromptu after-school-snack with Yamaguchi and Tsukishima, Hinata found himself overcome with the impulse to ask a question of Kageyama that he wouldn’t dare have asked anyone else.

“Kageyama, you like guys, right?”, he asked, knowing the answer to this already after countless conversations about soul mates and people they were attracted to more than alluded to this fact. “...Yeah”, replied the dark-haired boy somewhat awkwardly as he bit into the second meat bun that he and Hinata had purchased after parting ways with the other two first years. “How would you rank our team as far as attractiveness?”, Hinata asked, seemingly out of nowhere. 

Kageyama raised an eyebrow. “Attractiveness?”, he asked, “Like… do you mean just appearance, or who they are overall?”. Hinata shook his head, “Just appearance.” Again the server raised his eyebrow. “If I answer this, are you gonna give me your opinions too?”. The redhead nodded eagerly and, before Kageyama was able to start his list, added, “Oh! And let’s not include each other, okay? No need to make it awkward or anything.” Kageyama rolled his eyes but ultimately nodded in acknowledgement of this rule.

“Hmmm”, he started, “Let’s see. Well, I guess Sugawara-san is the most attractive, objectively speaking.” Hinata nodded in eager agreement as he took a bite of his own bun, allowing Kageyama to continue on, “And I guess I’d have to put Daichi-san as second. I don’t know. He’s more  _ stereotypically  _ attractive.” Again, the redhead nodded. “Third… probably Asahi-san. If he wasn’t so awkward, I think he could honestly model.” “Really?”, asked Hinata, cocking his head. “Yeah”, affirmed Kageyama, side-eyeing the middle blocker suspiciously, “Why, who would  _ you  _ say is number three? Nishinoya-san? Ennoshita-san?”. 

Hinata’s face immediately turned beet red and he did his best to keep it from Kageyama’s view, looking to his right and pretending to be completely engrossed in the scenery unfolding to the opposite side of him. “Um-- well-- I dunno”, stammered Hinata, “I mean, without the terrible personality… don’t you think Tsukishima’s pretty cute?”. 

Kageyama seemed to seriously consider this for a moment before lulling his head. “I mean”, he started, “I wouldn’t say that he’s  _ un _ attractive. In fact, you’re probably right-- he’s probably one of the more attractive people we play with. But, I don’t know. I just can’t get past the personality.” “But, Kageyama--!”, started Hinata, only to be cut off by the setter once more. “I know, I know”, Kageyama sighed, waving his free hand as he spoke, “We’re not supposed to be taking personalities into consideration. But I feel like Tsukishima is a special case. He wears his personality all over his face. If he was relaxed, if he was  _ nice,  _ then yeah, he’d definitely be a contender for one of the most attractive people on our team. But he  _ isn’t.  _ He’s crabby and mean and has a permanent scowl etched on his face. I dunno. I can’t see past that.” 

Hinata shrugged as the two kept walking, allowing the subject to change naturally. Kageyama was right and he knew it, but something unnatural inside of him made him want to move Tsukishima higher and higher up that list. He resolved to keep it to himself for the time being, and hoped that it was only a side effect of the natural sense of relief that came with making up after a drawn out fight.

_ ‘Yeah’,  _ he thought to himself as he did  his best to rationalize the unusual reaction he’d had to Tsukishima’s gaze earlier that day,  _ ‘That’s definitely gotta be what it is. Cuz otherwise, these feelings wouldn’t make any sense!’.  _

 


	11. Redo

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hinata gets good news and begs Tsukishima for help.

Things had been relatively peaceful among Karasuno’s first year volleyball players for several days, and the team as a whole seemed to be more in sync knowing that there was no longer any unspoken tension. Yamaguchi and Tsukishima resumed their close friendship, including the parts where they made side comments about how ridiculous or annoying their other two peers were. Hinata took these comments in stride. The few days without them had been nothing more than a frustrating reminder of how he’d let his teammates down so, in the end, he was grateful each time he heard the blonde and brunette snickering when he hit a ball into the net or when he took a ridiculous tumble trying to save a ball that was obviously out.

When the bell rang at 3:00 dismissing all students from their classes that Monday afternoon, a red-orange blur sped through the hallway, nearly knocking over students and teachers alike as it made its way to class 1-4.

“Tsukishima!”, Hinata gasped, catching the tall blonde right as he crossed the threshold into the hall. Tsukishima seemed surprised to see the small redhead, his face contorting into a strange mixture of emotions before ultimately settling on, “...hey”, as he continued out of the classroom. Hinata had to walk at an awkward half-speed-walk in order to keep up with the blonde’s long strides, though, if Tsukishima was aware that he had someone accompanying him, he was excellent at making it seem otherwise as he wove in and out of the flow of bodies walking down the hall.

Once they got outside, Hinata, panting from the effort it took him to stay at his fellow middle-blocker’s side, repeated, “Tsukishima!”. The blonde looked to his left and raised an eyebrow. “Oh”, he remarked casually, “You’re still here.” Hinata frowned deeply before remembering his original reason for following his teammate so far. “Tsukishima”, he repeated a third time, “Guess what!”. The blonde rolled his eyes dramatically before sighing, “...I don’t know, you finally decided to drop out of school and join the circus?”. It took Hinata a long moment to process what the blonde had said, but once he did he scowled and exclaimed, “Rude!”.

 _“For your information”,_ he started, waving a piece of paper that he’d been clutching in his left hand wildly, _“I_ have _important_ news!”. “...you joining the circus wouldn’t count as important news?”, Tsukishima parried. Hinata scrunched his nose but continued as if the blonde hadn’t spoken. “Sensei told me that I could retake the test I got the thirty on! She said that she assumed I was having a bad day or something, so if I want to go in early on Thursday morning to redo it, I could!”. Tsukishima glanced at the small redhead out of the corner of his eye as he grumbled a sarcastic, “woo hoo”. Again he was met with a scowl. _“Tsukishima”,_ Hinata whined, “Don’t you see how important this is?!”. Shrugging half-heartedly, the blonde replied, “I… guess?”.

“If I don’t pass this test, my grade for the marking period will be under a C. Takeda-sensei said I need at _least_ a C in all of my classes in order to go to the practice camp the weekend after next. And if I can’t go to the practice camp, I have almost no shot of playing in the _real_ matches! And, I mean, I wasn’t exactly doing great in English _before_ I got the thirty, so without this test, I’m basically screwed!”, Hinata explained exasperatedly. Tsukishima nodded disinterestedly.

“Can you _please_ tutor me some day this week before Thursday?”, the redhead begged, proffering the crumpled paper in his fist to Tsukishima as he spoke. “Can’t”, Tsukishima said curtly, “I’m busy.” _“Please”,_ Hinata begged once more, “I don’t care when! We can meet up really early in the morning, or really late at night, any time that works for you! Just tell me when and I’ll be there!”. Tsukishima sighed exaggeratedly. “Libraries aren’t open ‘really early in the morning’ or ‘really late at night’, you idiot. Sorry, I can’t help you. Try studying on your own.”

With that, the blonde began walking quicker in an attempt to try to escape being badgered any further by Hinata. Hinata, however, was undeterred; he began to jog lightly in an effort to match the tall, lanky blonde, whose regular gait already covered far more ground than his own.

“Tsukishima”, Hinata pled, _“Please…_ I’m begging you… I need help. I asked Yamaguchi during lunch and he told me to ask you. We don’t have to meet at the library. You can come to my house, or I can meet you at your house, or we can meet up at school or at a park! I just really, _really_ need your help. _Please._ I _need_ to go to that practice camp! Just-- _please, Tsukishima,_ **_please--_ ** have a heart… _Please_ help me!”

The two walked in silence for a minute as Tsukishima exhaled slowly through his nose. Eventually shaking his head, he sighed, “You just don’t know how to take no for an answer, do you?”. After a long pause, the blonde continued, “I’ll text you when I’m free on Wednesday night and you can come over to my house.” As Hinata started his litany of ‘thank you’s, Tsukishima interrupted him. “Make sure you do _all_ the work the teacher assigns you. I’m helping you study-- _not_ doing your homework for you. And”, the blonde started as he slowed to a stop in order to look directly at the redhead, “This is the _only_ time I’m doing this. It’s bad enough Tadashi signed us up for this crap every other weekend. I don’t need to be doing it after school, too.”

Hinata nodded eagerly before exclaiming, “I _swear,_ I’ll have everything done and organized so you can see what to help me with. Thank you Tsukishima, thank you!”. Overcome with excitement, Hinata quickly embraced the blonde, though as soon as he realized what he was doing, he pulled back to see a look of utter disgust plastered across Tsukishima’s face. “Don’t make me regret this before it even happens”, the blonde threatened. Hinata backed off quickly, a light flush illuminating his cheeks. “S- sorry”, the redhead choked out, “I… I guess I’ll let you walk home, then. Thanks a lot, Tsukishima. It means more to me than you’ll ever know.” “Yeah, yeah…”, mumbled the blonde, slipping his headphones over his ears, feeling beyond relieved to have finally escaped the conversation with Hinata, even if it was at the cost of his free time on Wednesday.

 _‘As long as we’re done before 9:00’,_ the blonde thought to himself, glancing backwards to see Hinata practically skipping in the opposite direction, _‘it should be fine. I just don’t want to have to make my soulmate wait because of_ **_him._ ** ’  
  


 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's Missicle again! :D S&C is back from their vacation, but Chapter 6 (the one that we collaborated on, where it's pretty much **just** soulmate conversation) threw us off our groove, so I decided to post today so that we can get back on our normal schedule. The next update will be by SodomyandCocktails... hopefully you're not too tired of Hinata's POV yet!


	12. Lessons Learned

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hinata and Tsukishima's Study Session Part 2: Electric Boogaloo

“What have I gotten myself into?”, Kei says to no one as he sits exasperatedly in his empty room. Today he is supposed to have his ‘emergency’ study session with Hinata and he is dreading it. It seems like his last week has been a total mess. He had his original study session _(which was just wonderful)_ , which caused way too much tension and conflict for the team than he’d ever like to deal with. leading to Yamaguchi avoiding him as well. And there was one central factor to all of this: _Hinata_. To put it lightly Kei has had a lot of free time this week and more of that time than he’d ever like to admit was dedicated to thinking about that orange-haired shrimp.

He doesn’t understand why but his mind has kept going back to their last study session, when he noticed Hinata had fallen asleep on him. The initial thought that flickered through his mind was that he should let him stay asleep, and that he might even look ‘ _cute’_ like that. That thought was quickly rushed out of his head, never to be mentioned to a single soul, leading Kei to _just maybe_ overreact a little bit before ending their study session once and for all. Then there was the other day where Hinata literally hugged him when he agreed to help him study. Kei couldn’t help but think about how he smelled and how soft he felt. The blonde felt like he was going insane, continuously going back to these thoughts. Kei would never admit it but he did feel a little bad for overreacting and pushing him away. Hinata may still be Hinata, but somehow it seems like he has been a lot more bearable as of late.

Pushing those thoughts quickly out of his head before he gets lost again, Kei looks down at his phone to check the time. ‘6:20 PM’ glares back up at him. With a heavy sigh, he mumbles to himself, “Okay. Let’s get this over with.” Opening up his messaging app he quickly scrolls to Hinata’s name.

**Tsukishima:** Hey, I’m free now if you can still make it over. Do you still remember my address?   
**Hinata:** Oh!!! Hey, Tsukki! I was almost thinking you weren’t gonna message me!!! :)   
**Hinata:**  Of course I can make it over, I can be there by 7 if that’s okay?   
**Tsukishima:**  Don’t call me that. Of course 7 is fine, I’m the one asking you, dumbass.   
**Hinata:** Ohhh Scaryshima showing his fangs again! I’m on my way!! :)

Looking down at the last message, Kei’s face begins to burn. Nobody calls him anything but his name except for Yamaguchi, and, in truth, he never usually liked being called different names, but somehow it makes him feel liked. The fact that Hinata’s the one doling out the nicknames makes him cringe, though; Kei never wanted to so much as imagine any form of ‘affection’ from Hinata, even if it was him being sly. If pressed, Kei would have trouble calling Hinata a ‘friend’, yet here Hinata is being overly friendly as always. It’s tiring, to say the least.

Kei hears a knock on the door, and goes down to answer it, knowing full well that it is Hinata at the door.  He pulls the door open with a quick, “Hey.” Hinata looks at him and answers quickly, “Hey Tsukishima! Thank you _soooo_ much for helping me out with such short notice; I don’t know what I’d do without you!”.  Kei takes note of Hinata holding the ‘so’ much longer than necessary, as well as the fact that Hinata still seems to be full of more energy than any one person should ever possess at one time.

With a sigh Kei invites him in, “Don’t worry about it. I don’t think the team would let me live it down if you fail and I didn’t at least _try_ to help you.”  “Sorry for the intrusion”, calls out Hinata. The blonde casts a quick glance at his peer and mumbles, “Don’t worry about that, nobody else is here. My room is upstairs to the right; we can head up there and get started if you’d like. Did you want any snacks or anything to drink?”. “Some water would be nice, thanks”, grins Hinata.

Heading to Kei’s room Hinata looks at it in awe. “Wow!!”, he gasps in wonderment, “Tsukki, your room is so cool!” “I told you not to call me that”, states Kei deadpanned. Seemingly ignoring this, Hinata continues, “You got so many books and so many cool dinosaurs-- I never knew you liked dinosaurs!” With that Kei’s face begins to burn. “D..Don’t worry about that…”, he grumbles, trying to shake off the flush, “Did you do the homework you were assigned?”.  “Of course I did. It may not be perfect… But I tried just like I promised”, Hinata said nervously, rubbing the back of his neck. “Well take it out and let’s take a look”, states Kei, moving stuff off his desk and pulling a second chair close.

“Well” added the redhead as he hands over a small stack of papers, “I gave it a try, but I have trouble understanding all the rules of this language and remembering what all the words mean. It’s _so hard_.” Hinata punctuated his statement with a small whine. With another glance at the redhead before turning back to his papers, Kei shrugs, “Well, looking at this sheet, it seems like you understand some of the basics but seem to have trouble when you add on to the words or use them in sentences.” After saying this Kei begins to write out some practice words and pulls out his textbook to go over sentences. “Okay let’s give these words a try.” “Okay!” Hinata states looking intently focused.

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------

After a few hours Kei can honestly admit that it looks like Hinata is beginning to understand the problems in front of him. As he sits and watches Hinata work, a sudden thought occurs to him; Kei takes a quick down at his phone and sees that it is already past 9 PM and he is late again to talk to his soulmate. Glancing back up at the redhead, he says, “Hey Hinata, I’m just gonna use the washroom quick. I’ll be right back.” Hinata looks over to him and nods in approval before going back to the work in front of him. On Kei’s way out of the room he discretely grabs a pen sitting on his bedside table and heads over to the washroom.

“Hey”, he quickly scrawls on his forearm, “Sorry I’m late again. I’ve been busy today but hopefully I’ll be free in a little bit. I just didn’t want you to think I forgot.”  Seeing the words disappear, he begins to smile and gets a response almost immediately “Don’t worry about it”, comes the response, replacing where his own text had been, “I’ve also been busy tonight but I’d be happy to talk more tonight if you are going to be free later.” Kei feels happy knowing he didn’t make his soulmate wait for him. “That sounds good”, he writes back, “I will be up for a while tonight.” With that Kei rolls down his sleeve and begins to walk back to his bedroom.

“How did those problems go?” asks Kei as he returns to the desk. “So much better than when I did them on my own. I don’t know what I would do without you. This tutoring has helped me out so much.” Much to Kei’s surprise, the redhead leans over and quickly embraces him as he continues, “This helped me so much; I’m sure I can keep playing volleyball because of you!”. Kei just looks at Hinata in awe, his face bright red, and is at a complete loss. “Wh...What are you doing dumbass”, he scowls, prying Hinata’s arms off of him before pushing him away. Hinata grins sheepishly, “I don’t know... I was just overcome with emotion and wanted to thank you for being a good person... _Kindshima_!”.

The two work for a little bit longer before Hinata sees the time and begins to get a little flustered. “Sorry I didn’t notice how late it is”, he frowns, “I’m so sorry for taking up all of your time. I should head out. I still have to bike home and we have practice tomorrow morning.” Hinata begins to run around the room grabbing all of his stuff and shoving it into his bag. “Oi dumbass! Be careful, I don’t want you breaking anything,” states Kei. “Sorry Kindshima, thank you so much for helping me and having me over!” With that they begin to walk out of the room, and as they do, the blonde grumbles, “Hey! I told you not to call me that.” “Nu-uh”, grins Hinata mischievously, “You only told me not to call you ‘Tsukki’. You never said anything else about any other names!” Kei’s already prominent scowl deepens as he asks, “Well can you _please_ not play with my name?”. Kei just lets out a sigh knowing this is a battle he will not be able to win.

“Well get home safe”, the blonde says more out of politeness than anything else as Hinata exits his house, “I can’t think of many other people that are stupid enough to bike through the mountains this late at night, and I don’t need Daichi and Suga getting mad at me for you not getting home safely.”  “Aww, Tsukishima really does care! Thanks, Kindshima!” Hinata teases, sticking out his tongue as he quickly closes the door after him in order to avoid yet another confrontation with Kei.

Kei just sighs as he stares blankly at the closed door. He can’t believe what just happened; his cheeks are still burning and his mind is drawing a blank. Hinata hugged him again, and he honestly thinks he liked it. Kei begins to rub his head and, with a quiet breath, mutters, _“Shit.”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone, I'm back from vacation and glad to be back. Thanks to Missicle for posting my chapters for me while I was gone. I've really enjoyed reading everyone's comments and am so glad everyone is enjoying this story. I really enjoyed writing this chapter and hope everyone enjoys it as well.


	13. Good News is Meant to be Shared

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hinata shares some good news with his soulmate.

On the Friday after his make up test, Hinata Shōyō was asked by his teacher to see her after school. The volleyball team had the day off of practice, so, thinking nothing of it, the redhead agreed. At the end of the day, he said goodbye to Kageyama and walked back into his English class, nervous about what the teacher could possibly have to say to him that she didn’t want to address in front of others.

“Oh! Hinata!”, the young English teacher beamed, looking up at him, “Come, sit. I just wanted to discuss your grade with you.” Hinata slowly approached her desk and took the seat directly in front of it. The teacher dug through a pile for a moment before pulling out a small packet of papers. 

“Now, Hinata… I am very pleased to tell you that you got an A on your test!”, she beamed, turning the paper around to reveal a big, red ‘A’ on the front of it. “You had a few spelling errors here and there, but ultimately you scored nearly triple what you got on the original exam.” The teacher paused and handed the redhead back his test, which he eagerly began flipping through. “I have to say”, his teacher started, “I don’t often give retakes. I believe that a student should put forth their best effort on exam day. But it’s clear that you had  _ something  _ going on that day, for you to have gotten a score like this. I just wanted to ask you if you’re  _ sure  _ you should be on the volleyball team when these are the types of grades you can achieve without being at practice.”

Hinata was taken aback by this question and fumbled for a moment, muttering ‘um’s and ‘ah’s as he tried to figure out how he should answer the question. “Actually”, he started, finally finding his words, “The only reason I was able to get a score this good was  _ because  _ of my volleyball team. Someone in class four tutored me and helped me realize what I had been doing wrong all this time. Without him, I probably would’ve gotten another thirty.” “I see”, nodded the teacher, “Well, keep up the good work! And make sure you thank your friend, okay?”. 

Hinata nodded, grinning broadly as he stood, thanked the teacher, and exited her classroom.  _ ‘I have to tell someone about this!’,  _ he thought, clutching his test as if it were the most important piece of paper in the world. The halls were quiet and empty, and Hinata soon realized that if he wanted to show anyone his results, he would likely have to seek them out to do so. 

He wandered slowly through the silent hallway, wondering who he should tell and how. After a moment he stopped and fished his cell phone out from his pocket. He was dismayed, then, when the screen wouldn’t illuminate; his phone had died during his school day, and was no longer a viable option for contacting others. Hinata wasn’t sure what to do. Of course, he didn’t  _ have  _ to tell anyone, but the excitement he felt was almost too much for him to contain.  _ ‘Maybe if I hurry, I can catch Kageyama on his way home’,  _ he thought to himself as he stepped out into the cool autumn air.

As he began jogging towards the school’s gate, another thought occurred to him, and he found that it was more appealing than the prospect of running to meet Kageyama and potentially wasting his time if his setter was already that much further ahead of him.

He stopped for a moment and dug through his backpack, continuing on his journey home only once he found a pen.

“Hey”, he wrote on his left arm, “I know it’s early, but I was wondering if you were free?”.

 

Kei was forever grateful that he didn't have volleyball practice today. He’d had a long day at school. It felt like his teacher’s have been picking on him in every class, and he felt like he was constantly being asked to answer questions, to the point where he was even asked to come up to the board to write his answer once. Although he had no trouble answering the questions, Kei was glad to be home. As always, upon entering his house, Kei expected no one to be home, and didn’t even bother to call out a standard greeting as he headed upstairs to his room. Taking out his homework for the day and changing out of his uniform, he noticed that he had a message waiting on his arm. 'That’s odd’, he thought to himself as he moved to lay on his bed and unwind, grabbing his pen in the process.

Kei read over the message he received with a small amount of fear; he almost never got any early messages from his soulmate unless there was a problem. 

“Hey, I hope you weren't waiting too long, I just noticed you messaged me. What’s up, is everything okay?”

 

Hinata had gotten nearly halfway home by the time his soulmate’s response had come in, though his enthusiasm about his scores hadn’t dwindled even slightly. “Everything’s fine!”, he scribbled, trying to keep his penmanship somewhat neat despite the fact that he was walking, “I had a really good day today. I just got my scores back from a test I took and I got an A! And it was a subject I usually have a tough time with!”.

The writing still fresh on his arm, he added, “I was just really excited and wanted to share it with someone. Sorry if you’re busy or I’m bothering you or anything.”

 

Kei was surprised that he got a reply almost immediately; it appeared that his soulmate didn't have to wait on him too long. With his pen still ready in his hand Kei began to write, “That's great to hear. I'm glad you did well.” After he finished writing his reply, Kei immediately added, “What subject was it?”.

 

“It was                  !”, Hinata wrote back. He frowned at his arm once the words faded and the word ‘English’ remained.  _ ‘What the hell?’,  _ he thought to himself,  _ ‘Why is that considered personal information?’.  _ Normally when he was censored, he was trying to send very specific information about himself. He couldn't fathom how the word 'English’ was too personal to share. 

 

Kei looked down at his soulmate’s response and was totally lost. “It was…?”, he responded quickly, wondering what his soulmate would even try to write to that question that would get removed.

 

Hinata, taking his pen to his flesh once more, wrote, 'foreign language’ right below where 'English’ still sat smudged on his skin. Moments later it faded away.  _ 'Weird.’ _

 

When Kei saw the new response, his mind started to churn. What language could his soulmate possibly put down that would be considered personal information? Was the soulmate bond trying to avoid giving Kei any hints at what country his soulmate was from? ...Not that the information from that would've been very useful. Kei was almost certain his soulmate was from Japan just like him, seeing as they've communicating with no problem. 

Snapping out of his thoughts Kei remembered that he never sent a response. “That's weird”, he wrote, “It’s not like there's any reason to censor that…”. A moment later he added on, “All these random soulmate rules are so weird. They don't make any sense half of the time.”

 

Hinata smiled softly as his soulmate’s words appeared on his skin. “I agree”, he wrote, “I don’t know why we can’t just choose for ourselves what to say and when.”

“Of course”, he added, “I probably would’ve sent you my address when I was like 13 lol”.

 

Kei began to blush upon reading that, but he also felt a wave of courage race through him. “Not if I didn't send you mine first.” Kei stopped and thought for a second before adding on a “;)” to his first message. 

“I wish I got to truly know you. You take up so much of my thoughts and lately most of my thoughts have been on kissing you.” Kei watched the message disappear into his skin and finds himself feeling nervous instantly; he had never been so outright before with his soulmate, even if things with his soulmate had been a little more flirty lately.

 

Hinata felt his legs go weak at this comment, which is not necessarily what one wants when they’ve still got a quarter mile left of their walk home. Things with his soulmate had been heating up since he accidentally sent him a heart two weeks prior, and he was beginning to feel like he was actually in a relationship at this point.

In truth, he felt the same in regards to Tsukishima’s text message; a lot of his alone time was spent fantasizing about what kind of person his soulmate was, what they looked like, and what it would be like when they were finally together (with a particular emphasis on the physical aspects of their meeting). 

Hands trembling slightly, Hinata wrote back, “I know the feeling. I can't wait to find out what you look like. I feel like I spend so much time missing you, and I don't even know you.”

The butterflies in Hinata's stomach were so turbulent that he felt like he was going to be sick right there on the sidewalk on his walk home.

 

Kei felt an intense pressure in his chest as he was overcome with a tidal wave of pure emotion. The blonde had never wanted to meet his soulmate more than he did now. “I’ve always wanted to see what you look like. I bet you’re super cute. :)”, Kei smiled, beaming at his own arm, “Although I couldn’t care less what you look like, I just know from our conversations that we are a perfect match.”

 

Hinata’s breath caught in his chest as he read his soulmate’s message, and he found himself wondering for the millionth time what his soulmate looked like as he rounded the block onto his street. He was certain, at that point, that his soulmate was male, though his soulmate was obviously unable to say so outright. He had to imagine that his soulmate would be taller than he was, as he couldn’t personally name any guy that was  _ shorter  _ than him. He pictured that his soulmate would have pale skin and light-colored hair. And as the idea of his soulmate wearing glasses wandered through his mind, he suddenly realized that the person he was imagining his soulmate being seemed awfully familiar…

His stomach roiled as he realized that his imagination had inserted none other than Tsukishima Kei into the role of his soulmate. 

Quickly and dramatically shaking his head, trying to physically shake off the unappealing realization that he might actually have a crush on Tsukishima after all, Hinata put his pen back to his arm and quickly scribbled, “I hope you think I’m cute :P I really want to meet you soon. I don’t know that I’ll be able to survive much longer…”.

Another shudder ran down Hinata’s spine as he walked into his house, the image of Tsukishima’s face staring back at him each time he shut his eyes.

 

Kei always got a big smile on his face when it looked like he made his soulmate happy. “I bet you’re adorable”, he wrote back.

After sending that message Kei remembered that he never let his soulmate know about his upcoming plans. Karasuno’s volleyball team had a training camp the next weekend, and he knew that training camps meant that, for what he lacked in personal space, he made up for in complete and utter exhaustion. This usually meant that it was rather difficult for him to find time to send more than an occasional message to his soulmate. Putting the pen to his skin once more, he wrote, “Oh just so I don’t forget to mention, I may be pretty busy next weekend, so I may not be able to talk much. I hope that isn’t a problem.” 

 

Hinata frowned at his arm. “Aw”, he wrote back, “That sucks. But I understand. I hope you have fun, whatever you’re doing.” 

The redhead’s frown deepened as he flopped backwards on his bed.  _ 'That sucks’,  _ he thought to himself,  _ 'What am I supposed to do if I’m not able to talk to my soulmate for a whole weekend?’.  _ As Hinata lay there, it suddenly occurred to him that  _ he  _ was going to be busy the following weekend as well, since he had to go to his away training camp for volleyball.

“Oh, actually”, he wrote, “It’s not even gonna be a problem, cuz I think I have some stuff going on as well. I’ll make time to talk if you can, but if you can't, I understand. I’ll miss you either way.  ♡ ”

Hinata smiled when the response came in, reading simply, “♡”, and as the two soulmates fell back into their regular conversation that now featured flirtatious overtones, Hinata found himself pining for the future where he and his soulmate could coexist in the same reality-- where they could talk to each other in person, see each other each day, look into one another’s eyes as they worked together to make their bond even stronger.

_ If only he knew… _

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi there, it's Missicle!  
> Please excuse if there are any glaring errors in this post. S&C and I worked on this post together. I do all of the editing for this fic, generally speaking, but I took an allergy pill a few hours ago and have been trying to power through, but I can barely keep my eyes open @_@ (which, also, is why it's so late OTL sorrrrryyyyy) Also, remember how we just fixed our posting schedule? Fuck that, apparently lmao, cuz I'm posting on Thursday too xD  
> oh well  
> see you guys in a few days :)


	14. Synergy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The day that Karasuno's volleyball team leaves for their training camp has finally arrived!

After weeks and weeks of hard work and anticipation, the day had finally arrived: today, Hinata Shōyō and his volleyball team were leaving for their four day long practice camp in Tokyo. Hinata  _ loved  _ practice camps. In his normal day-to-day his every thought was volleyball as it was, but at practice camp he was not only permitted but encouraged to practically, eat, sleep, and breathe the sport.

As the team lined up and seemed to automatically partner off with their seat-mate of choice, Ukai stepped forward and cleared his throat. “I’ve been doing a lot of thinking”, he announced as he glanced down at the clipboard in his hand, “And I realized that, while you  _ are  _ all still teenagers, the two hours we spend on the bus could be used more productively. So I’ve decided to assign seating--”. A groan of a disappointed ‘aw’ rippled through the team, and the blonde coach raised a placating hand. “--I know, I know. Just hear me out. I decided to assign seating on our way there, based on your position. Now, I  _ do  _ want you guys to give this your best shot as far as talking strategy goes. We don’t want a repeat of last month, where you lot were the only ones taking the punishments for losing games. Talk with the person you’re sitting with.  _ Strategize.  _ Give each other constructive criticism.  _ Listen to one another. _ If this works, we’ll see the results in our first game this evening. And, well, if it doesn’t… the only thing any of you lost was two hours talking with your buddies. Sound like a plan?”. The team, as a whole, mumbled their agreements, and Ukai turned his attention back to the clipboard. 

“Okay, so the first ones on the bus… let’s get our first set of wing spikers, Daichi and Tanaka!”. Daichi and Tanaka exchanged grins, as if to say,  _ ‘Well this isn’t so bad’,  _ and together the two grabbed their duffle bags and left the gym. “Then I’ll take our second set of wing spikers, Ennoshita and Kinoshita!”. The two young men high fived one another before getting up and leaving the gym. A notable frown was present on the face of the third member of their trio-- Narita-- and Asahi was left frowning as well, presumably because he was the only wing spiker that hadn’t been called up. Addressing this immediately, Ukai turned to him and said, “Asahi, I didn’t stick you with the rest of the wing spikers because you carry another role that I feel you should be focusing on. With that being said, I’d like for you and Nishinoya to be the next pair. You two have pretty good synergy as it is, but you two need to be the most in sync out of everyone here, I think.” Asahi glanced over to Nishinoya and grinned before turning back to Coach Ukai and nodding. The ace and the libero followed the lead of the others who went before them, standing, collecting their possessions, and exiting the gymnasium.

Ukai turned back to the group before him. There were two people that he felt might take issue with his choices, and they sat among the six boys waiting anxiously to hear who they’d be spending the next two hours with.

Clearing his throat, Ukai continued, “...the next set I’m going to have is Sugawara and Kageyama.” A slight smile crossed the usually stone-faced lips of Kageyama, but another voice cried out, “But Coach!”.  _ ‘Here we go’,  _ Ukai thought to himself. He  _ knew  _ there would be a problem with this seating pick. And he knew that it wouldn’t be from either of the people chosen to sit together. “What, Hinata?”, he demanded, not even bothering to glance up from his clipboard. “Coach”, the redhead begged, “Wouldn’t it make more sense to have Sugawara sit with Asahi, and for Kageyama and I to sit together? I mean, we have our quick that could still use work, and--” “And what will  _ talking  _ about your quick do?”, interrupted Ukai irritably. He  _ knew  _ Hinata wanted to sit with his friend. It was normal for boys that age. But if their team wanted a chance at success, they needed to capitalize on any opportunity they had to improve, even if it was just working on synergy. 

As expected, Hinata stammered, looking for any response to give his coach.

With an eye-roll and a nod to his setters, Ukai grumbled, “You two, go.” Turning back to Hinata, Ukai started, “I spent a lot of time thinking about this arrangement. I  _ get  _ where you’re coming from, Hinata, I really do. It wasn’t that long ago that  _ I  _ was in high school, too. But we need every advantage we can get, and I really think this can help us. Get it?”. Biting his lower lip, the redhead nodded solemnly. “Good”, replied Ukai, “Next, I’m going to have…”.

Tsukishima had been sitting placidly through this entire procedure. None of it  _ really  _ mattered, anyway, as he was basically guaranteed to be with Yamaguchi. After all, both he  _ and  _ Yamaguchi were two of the four left, right?

But while Hinata was being told off, a sudden realization hit him. Everyone was being paired off by their roles. And, while all three of the first years present were middle blockers, Yamaguchi had one thing that set him apart-- something that he shared with the last person among them: Narita Kazuhito. The blonde’s heart sank deep into the pit of his stomach as he tuned back into Ukai’s voice, “...Narita and Yamaguchi together, as you’re both pinch servers. Pinch servers, by the way, who have put in quite a bit of effort as it is to fine-tuning your role.” Yamaguchi sent an apologetic glance over to Tsukishima who was sitting stunned on the floor of the gym.

“That means”, continued Ukai, allowing the clipboard to fall to his side, “That you two are sitting together.” “No”, came the response from Tsukishima. Ukai raised an eyebrow as he spat, “...I’m  _ sorry? _ ”. Tsukishima glanced quickly to Hinata, then shook his head. “I’m not spending two hours trapped on a bus sitting next to  _ him.”  _ The coach folded his arms and frowned. “Of everyone on this entire  _ team,  _ the two of you need to work on your teamwork and synergy the  **most.** In fact, I want the two of you to spend this time getting to know one another, rather than talking strats. Maybe after that you can start to show some patience with each other. You both are lucky enough to be  _ starting players  _ as first years. You need to show some gratitude and work together.” “I can work with him just fine”, shrugged Tsukishima, “That doesn’t mean I have to like him, or get along with him, or sit with him on the bus and pretend to be buddy-buddy for two hours.” 

Ukai leaned down and looked Tsukishima directly in the eye as he whispered, “It does if you want to get on that bus. What do you say, Tsukishima?”. The young blonde studied the ground for a long moment before finally sighing, shaking his head, and muttering, “Come on, Hinata.”

“That’s what I thought!”, grinned Ukai, “Okay, everybody onto the bus!”.

 

Tsukishima felt all eyes on him as he got onto the bus. The walk to the back of the bus was the longest walk of his life. Why, oh  _ why,  _ of all the people in the world, did he have to sit with  _ Hinata?  _ He could’ve easily sat with Yamaguchi, or even Narita, and strategized. He could’ve even sat with Daichi or Asahi and gotten more pointers on general teamplay-- who’s to say his discussion had to be limited to blocking?

But no. He got stuck with Hinata. The boy who, as of late, made his stomach turn, but he couldn’t honestly say whether it was in a good way or a bad way. And the two would be forced to sit side by side, legs flush against one another, on the tiny seats of the bus for over two hours. They’d be forced to try to strategize.  _ ‘Strategize?! With Hinata?!’,  _ he found himself scoffing internally,  _ ‘He may live for volleyball, but I doubt that thought and strategy have anything to do with it. I’d bet  _ **_money_ ** _ that every action he does is based on impulse alone. So what the hell am I supposed to talk to him about?!’. ‘Your feelings’,  _ called back a voice from inside of him, reminding him that they were instructed specifically _not_ to strategize, rather, to try to get to know each other. Tsukishima did his best to play off the visible shudder as he threw himself into his seat. Like  _ hell  _ he was going to be talking about his feelings-- least of all with  _ Hinata Shōyō. _

 

Right behind him, Hinata was feeling similarly off-put. He much would’ve preferred spending this time with Kageyama, talking excitedly about his plans for the upcoming long weekend like they normally would, but instead he was with Tsukishima. He was beginning to come to terms with the notion that he might  _ actually  _ have a legitimate crush on Tsukishima, and he had no idea how to handle that. After all, he already had his soulmate, who he felt that he truly loved. And even if he  _ could  _ act on his little crush, what good would there be in doing so, if destiny (and society) said he was meant to be with someone else? 

To make matters worse, Tsukishima’s hatred for him only seemed to be growing. The blonde seemed to be avoiding him, and his open refusal to be seated next to Hinata hurt the redhead in ways he couldn’t possibly have anticipated.

But as he lowered himself down in the seat next to Tsukishima, butterflies still found their way into his stomach, and he still couldn’t help but be the slightest bit excited about being forced to get to know the blonde.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey all, sorry this is late. I have family staying with me from out of town AND I have a really bad cold, so it was tough to try to find the time to write since Monday.   
> As always, thank you for your readership, comments, and kudos. It means a lot to us on this collaborative work. <3


	15. Road Trip

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Karasuno begins their long awaited trip to their training camp

Kei cannot believe that he was virtually threatened by coach Ukai. Being forced to spend two hours straight with Hinata was going to be hell. Not only was he expected to sit with Hinata, he was also expected to get to know Hinata. Kei was having trouble thinking of a worse form of torture.

_ ‘To be honest this might not be the worst possible thing’, _ he thought to himself, though Kei had no intentions of thinking of the way Hinata has made him feel ever since their last study session. Kei has been stuck in thought over what happened and how he feels to the point where he has been ignoring and avoiding Hinata as much as possible over the last few weeks. Now they’re being forced together,  _ almost _ as if the universe is conspiring against him.

“Come on, Hinata”, Kei states deadpanned. With that, he turns around and enters the bus without even looking if Hinata is following him. He knows that he is, and as he makes his way to his seat at the back of the bus all he can hope is that  _ maybe _ Hinata might go to sleep or actually be quiet for once…  _ as if _ . 

As they both take their seats beside each other things start to seem like they may actually be okay. Everyone on the bus gets settled and the bus is generally noisy, but what else would Kei expect of a bus full of teenagers? To the blonde’s surprise, however, Hinata hasn’t said a single word to him yet. It is a welcome surprise, to say the least. Looking over to Hinata, Kei sees that his head is down and he looks incredibly nervous. Seeing Hinata like this makes Kei want to break the silence, “You better not get sick on me, Shrimp”, the blonde grumbles. Hinata looks up at Kei in shock, clearly not expecting him to have said anything. “I won’t get sick, Stupidshima”, the redhead grins, “what makes you think I’ll get sick?”. Kei can’t help but laugh at this question. “What do you  _ mean _ , ‘why do I think you’ll get sick?’”, the blonde scoffs, “You get sick practically every time we go on a trip... lest we forget the last time we went to practice games and you puked all over Tanaka.” Hinata looks down dejectedly, studying his lap before mumbling, “I promise I won’t get sick this time. Believe me.” Kei looks sternly at Hinata, and replies, “I’ll hold you to that.” With that Hinata goes silent, so Kei begins looking out the window, watching the scenery pass him by.

After a few minutes Hinata finally speaks up once more, saying quietly, “Hey Tsukishima? What’s your family like?”. Kei looks at Hinata like he just spoke in a foreign language. “Excuse me?” 

Hinata glances to the floor nervously, but presses on in spite of the thought that begins floating through the back of his mind that  _ this might not have been such a good idea after all.  _ “Well, you know how coach Ukai said we should spend this time getting to know each other, so I figured this would be a good way to start.” Hinata looks up expectantly then quickly adds on, “I know that when I was at your house nobody was there, and by the way you reacted it seemed like you expected nobody to be there.” 

Tsukishima stutters after Hinata finishes speaking. He never had any intention of opening up to  _ him _ of all people, yet when he looks up to the front of the bus he can see Ukai surveying the team and once his eyes meet Kei’s, he can tell just from the one look he’s saying ‘ _ stop looking up here Tsukishima and get back to talking.’  _ Kei looks down for a minute before sighing, “My family usually isn’t home. My brother is in college, my mom works the night shifts, and my dad is usually overseas for his company.” 

Hinata looks wide-eyed at Tsukishima, surprised to have gotten an actual answer. “Oh I didn’t realize”, the redhead frowns, “doesn’t that ever get lonely?”.

“I don’t get lonely”, Kei retorts, brushing Hinata’s comment off quickly in the hopes that the small boy won’t overthink things too much, “...don’t worry about me. I have lots of things to do... _ like actually doing my homework _ .” Kei punctuates his statement with a sneer, knowing full-well that it will get a rise out of the redhead.

“HEY!!! I’ll have you know I have done all of my homework…  over the last two weeks anyways .”, Hinata looks down mumbling that last line, making it  _ almost _ inaudible.

“What was that?”, asks Kei sarcastically, “is  _ someone _ actually beginning to make an effort in their studies??? Truly, I’m shocked.”

“Yeah…”, started Hinata quietly, “I really want to make sure I can keep playing on this team… I was really scared when I got my English grade back, but I’m pretty sure I can keep my marks up, and ever since you helped me I understand things so much better.” Hinata couldn’t help but beam up at Tsukishima as he finished speaking. 

“Well I’m glad you’re actually beginning to care about your grades,” Kei smirks. After that things go generally quiet again. There is a little bit of back and forth but Hinata seems to lose his focus on the conversation, focusing instead on the scenery outside the bus. Eventually Kei decides to speak up and finds himself asking, “What about you? Where is your family?”.

Hinata looks surprised by the question that was just poised at him. He sincerely never expected Tsukishima to actually begin asking him questions. After a moment spent in utter shock, the redhead finally responded, “Oh well my mom is usually at home. She does a lot of running around and takes care of my little sister Natsu. She’s lively, always getting me to play with her and stuff. My dad works here in town and is usually back by dinner.” 

“Oh”, says Kei flatly, not quite sure how to respond to that, “I figured maybe they wouldn’t be around either since you’re always around playing volleyball at all hours of the day.”

“Nah. They support me in that. They like that I’m in a club and making friends and enjoying myself”, Hinata beams.

Kei can’t help but smile, “I’m glad your family is supportive.” 

“Yeah it’s nice”, says Hinata. Things begin to get quiet again, but now Hinata doesn’t want this conversation to end. He thought for a moment about what he could say to move the conversation forward, eventually asking, “Tsukishima? What do you do outside of volleyball? I don’t really know much about you or your hobbies.” 

Kei could feel a nervousness building up in him. He was never one to people in yet here he was, trapped in a situation where he was expected to let Hinata learn about him. “Oh umm”, he started, mind wandering as he tried to form some sort of coherent answer, “...well, I guess I mainly read. I like to watch some documentaries or movies... honestly, a lot of my time is spent studying or with Yamaguchi.”

“Oh! I love movies!”, grinned Hinata, “What’s your favorite movie?”.

“Uh, it’s Jurassic Park”, Kei replies nervously.

“Oh, you must really love dinosaurs, don’t you? You also had some dinosaurs on your shelf in your room, right?”, Hinata asks, covering a little laugh behind his hand.

“Be quiet”, the blonde scowls, “You asked me what it was, so I told you--”

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to laugh”, Hinata starts, cutting Kei off, “It’s just crazy to think that the _completely_ _unapproachable Tsukishima_ like dinosaurs. I actually really like that movie, too, y’know. Dinosaurs are so cool! I just love so many movies. I love action and thrillers-- they’re both super exciting, like _POW_  and _WHAM_ , y’know?”. Hinata continues on, super excited at this point. 

“Sorry I don’t ‘know’. I can’t speak idiot”, Kei smirks at Hinata, obviously getting the rise out of him that he was expecting.

“Wow, so rude,  _ Meanshima! _ ...And just when I thought you were being nice...”, Hinata sulked, sticking his tongue out to Tsukishima in the process.

“Yeah, yeah”, the blonde laughed dismissively, “So what about you? What do you do besides volleyball? ...that is, if it’s even possible for you to do anything besides volleyball.” 

“Of course I have a life outside of volleyball. I spend time with my sister, I watch shows and talk to my friends... Oh, and I also talk to my soulmate almost everyday!”, Hinata says proudly.

“Oh God”, Kei laughs, “I feel bad for anyone who’s expected to spend their life with you.”

“Rude!”, the redhead exclaims, “What about you, what about your soulmate? Do you even have one??? I mean, I’d say the same thing about being with someone so cynical.” Hinata laughs back at his own jeer directed at the blonde.

“What about them?”, frowns Tsukishima, “Of  _ course _ I have a soulmate, not that I’d want to talk about them with  _ you _ .” Tsukishima started feeling awkward; he’d never discussed his soulmate with anyone and didn’t plan on starting now, especially not with  _ Hinata _ of all people.

“Okay,  _ fine _ ”, Hinata relented, “Be that way. Although I don’t know why’d you be so defensive of it. Everyone has a soulmate, you know.” 

“What?”, Kei frowned, “I just happen to think that the topic of people’s soulmates is a personal one, and I’d rather not talk about it.” Kei was beginning to get frustrated. “Can we please change the subject?”, Kei sighed almost pleadingly, not wanting to spend another minute in this conversation.

“ _ Fine. _ ...Hey, Tsukishima, is that the Tokyo Tower?! It’s so big!”, Hinata exclaimed.

“Not every radio tower is the Tokyo Tower, Idiot, and we’re not even going to be anywhere near it when we are in Tokyo”, Kei laughed.

From there the bus ride got a lot more hectic as everyone began looking out the windows, seeing the bigger buildings and crowded streets. Kei didn’t understand why everyone was getting worked up over what they saw; almost everything was the same as at home except maybe a little bigger and busier. At least it seemed like everyone was distracted and he could enjoy some ‘peace’ for the last bit of the trip.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just want to thank everyone for reading I am in awe, we've passed 100 kudos and that means a lot to both myself and Missicle, so thank you :)  
> I hope you all enjoyed the chapter and see you all on Friday


	16. Walls

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Karasuno finally makes it to their training camp, but Tsukishima has some reservations

Kei was never so happy to get out of a vehicle his entire life, usually when they do these trips he is sitting with Yamaguchi, who is quiet and lets him relax and keep to himself when he doesn’t want to talk and shares a lot of interests and knows exactly what to say when he does. Hinata on the other hand had none of that, they barely knew each other and Kei doubted Hinata could stay quiet for longer than five minutes without exploding from all of his pent up energy.

“Everybody line up!” Calls Ukai, loudly enough to get the attention of a rowdy and restless volleyball team that has just spent two straight hours on a bus. “As you are all aware, we have been graciously invited to this training camp, in part from the hard work we have put in this year and the hard work Takeda has put in organizing this camp.” Ukai takes a breath and makes sure everyone is still paying attention, “So as it should go without saying we need to present ourselves respectfully and with pride, remember we all represent our team and Karasuno. Now that that’s out of the way our schedule is honestly pretty open, after breakfast we will be having practice games until lunch and after that we will be having ‘free time’ to focus on individual development. You are all encouraged to spend this time with players from other schools and learn from them, this will be the best way to improve our skills going forward. Now we are going to find our rooms, introduce ourselves to the schools and prepare for dinner. Any questions?... Good now let’s go.” 

To say the excitement of the team was rising was an understatement, people were bouncing around and Hinata and Kageyama were already planning on racing each other to their rooms, even though they had no idea what room they were in and how to even get there. Kei was already drained and had very little interest to do much else today after that bus ride, but here he was. “Hey Tsukki! Excited to play?” Yamaguchi said, Kei was so lost in his surroundings he didn’t even notice when Yamaguchi came up to him, causing a small tensing of his shoulders. “Oh, I guess, I don’t know how everyone can be so excited to practice for four days straight, it’s so draining and tiring.” Yamaguchi looks almost a little pained from what was just said but Kei couldn’t quite tell, “Come on Tsukki it’ll be fun, we will get to practice with different schools and we don’t have to worry about class all weekend.” Kei just sighs “Yeah. I guess. Are you going to be practicing your serves more?” hoping that will change the topic off of him and it does. “Oh yeah I’m going to try and perfect my jump float serve, hopefully someone here knows how to use it and help me out, If not I’ll try and focus on my regular serves and receives when I’m with the other teams.”  Kei was about to respond when they were interrupted by Daichi and Suga, “Okay everyone, this will be our room, the sections will be split up by years, 1st years to the left, 2nd years in the middle and 3rd years to the right, the bathing schedule will also be the same, working down from the 3rd years, to the 2nd years, and than finally the 1st years and dinner will be at 6pm every night. So let’s go out there and show everyone what Karasuno is made of.” 

After everyone has put away their stuff and setup the room Kei’s stomach dropped, he just realized that he would be stuck sleeping beside Hinata for this entire weekend, ever since their study session he’s been trying to avoid Hinata, he still doesn’t want to deal with what he felt after he was hugged but it seemed like someone or something in this world kept forcing them together this weekend. “Hey Tsukki, you okay?” Yamaguchi calls out, pulling Kei out of his trance for the second time in less than an hour, “Yeah. I’m fine.” Yamaguchi smiles at that, “That’s good, let’s head out for dinner, everyone else has already gone down.”

Walking into the dining hall was like walking into a theme park, the noise was loud, people were everywhere and Kei was already beginning to tense up, thankful he brought his earphones so he could at least try and block out some of the sound around him, but right after he grabbed his food his plans were already appearing to be ruined, Kuroo has walked up to him with company in tow, “Hey Tsukishima glad to see you could make it, have you met Bokuto? He is Fukurōdani’s ace, he was even ranked in the top five in the country.” Pointing behind him, Bokuto was tall, although not a tall as Kei and was sporting hair straight out of a manga, spiky and with black and white streaks all throughout. “Hey.” Kei says uninterested and was already looking for way out of this conversation. “This was who you wanted me to meet Kuroo? Sure he’s tall, but he looks like he might kill anyone in his path.” asks Bokoto “Yeah don’t worry about Tsukishima, he wouldn’t hurt a fly, that’s just how he is around people.” Kuroo begins to smirk, “Hey Tsukishima did you want to practice blocking with us after dinner we could always use the extra people plus you’d get some quality competition from one of the top spikers in the country, It’d be good practice for Ushiwaka.” Kei cut him off after that, “Not interested.” Kuroo looked surprised at that, “But Tsukishima…” Kuroo said quickly, “Like I just said, Not interested” Kei not wanting this to go on any longer quickly came up with a lie, “I already have plans for tonight.”  “Well maybe we can join you guys than?” “Sorry, can’t. I have to go.” with that Kei turns around and quickly walks away refusing to be suckered into the extra practice.

On Kei’s way back to his room after dinner he hears a familiar voice. “Hey Tsukishima!” Said Hinata, “where are you going? Aren’t you going to practice tonight?” Kei shuddered Hinata was the last person he wanted to talk to right now. “Uh yeah I will, I just forgot some stuff in the room.” Kei was hoping that would end his questions. “Oh well I’ll come with you!.” Hinata continued to smile, Tsukishima couldn’t help but stare at him, his smile was so genuine and sincere that just warms a room. “No, no that’s not necessary, I’m assuming His Majesty is waiting for you to work on his tosses or spiking or something.” Tsukishima kept walking on, not bothering to check if Hinata was following him. “Nah, Kageyama said he wanted to practice by himself tonight and Kenma is busy as well, so I didn’t know who to practice with, until I saw you head back to the room and figured maybe you’d want to spend some time with me?” Hinata began to get a little nervous at this.  Kei sighed, “Can we do it tomorrow, I’d much rather practice alone tonight.” Hinata looked a Tsukishima unsure of how to respond “Well… Okay then, well you have my number if you change your mind tonight.” they both arrive to the room after this “Yeah sounds good, I’m sure you’ll find lots of people that want to practice with you tonight Hinata, Sorry I couldn’t tonight.” With that Hinata turns his head and begins to walk back outside.

Kei heads into the room and sits down on his futon and checks the time, only 7:30pm and he knows his soulmate would probably be busy but he felt stuck and stressed, so he pulls out his pen and writes a quick message, “Hey are you free? I’ve had a pretty rough day and could use someone to talk to.” Kei didn’t have to wait too long before he started getting a response, “Hey! Yeah I’m free, although not for very long. What’s wrong?”  Kei sighed, he never liked to tell his soulmate about his problems but he was just feeling pretty alone right now, “Sorry I won’t keep you too long than. I just feel like I messed up, I pushed away my friends, I’ve felt stressed and lonely all day and feel like I’m stuck, I do these hobbies but honestly I just don’t find much enjoyment in them right now causing some tension between myself and my friends.” He sits waiting for a response for a while wondering if it’ll come or if his soulmate got busy already. “Well one thing I know for sure is you’ll never be alone as long as I’m around <3” 

Kei began to blush looking down at that message until he realized he was getting another message, “And to me it sounds like your friends want to help, seeing as you’re the one pushing them away?”  Kei felt bad, he knew it was true but didn’t know what to say, “I guess.” He quickly gets a response back this time “Well than why don’t you try and hang out with one of your friends and talk to them about your problems with your hobbies or anything that’s on your mind.”  “Do you think so?” Kei wrote out “I know so now meet up friends and try and have fun, we can talk more tonight if you’d like.” worte his soulmate. “I’ll do that.” Kei begins to smile “And hey… Thank you, you mean a lot to me.” 

Tsukishima rolls down his sleeve and pulls out his phone, looking for a specific contact.

**Tsukishima:** Hey are you still willing to train with me?

**Hinata:** Of course, I knew you’d come around to training with me! :)

**Hinata:**  Meet me by the dining hall let’s go for a run!

**Tsukishima:** Okay I’ll meet you there in 20 minutes. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone it's S&C here again, I've been looking forward to the start of training camp for a while now, O'm sorry if this has any problems but I wanted to make sure this got posted tonight so feel free to let me know if I need to fix something. Just so everyone knows there may be a delay in the next chapter but we will get the next chapter out soon.


	17. Test Run

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hinata takes Tsukishima for a jog.

It came as no surprise when Tsukishima Kei found himself pacing outside of the dining hall less than ten minutes later. He was uncomfortable with how eager he was to see the redhead and did his best not to even let his mind wander over to the ‘why’s behind his excitement; this proved to be a fruitless endeavor, as that was where his mind wanted to be the most.  _ ‘I’m just taking my soulmate’s advice’,  _ he muttered to himself,  _ ‘And Hinata happens to be the only person who isn’t busy tonight. That’s all.’  _ Still, the slight trembling in his chest only served as a constant reminder that, no, that wasn’t ‘all’-- not by a long shot.

“Hey”, came a chipper voice from the newly-fallen darkness. Tsukishima had been so lost in thought and anticipation that the sudden noise caused him to jump. “W- w- what do you think you’re  _ doing,  _ sneaking up on someone like that?!”, the blonde stammered, his cheeks burning even brighter as he realized that, in his shock and embarrassment, he’d developed a stutter. 

“Sneaking up?”, Hinata grinned cheekily, “I’m meeting you at the time and place we agreed on. It’s not  _ my  _ fault you were facing the wrong way!”. The small redhead punctuated his statement by playfully sticking out his tongue. Tsukishima was not amused. “So it’s somehow  _ my  _ fault that you didn’t come out of the one logical place for you to show up from?”, the blonde spat, only to be met with a blank stare. “The door”, Tsukishima sighed, “The dining hall door.” “Oh!”, Hinata exclaimed, giggling slightly, “Well, I mean, I wasn’t  _ in  _ the dining hall. I had to run back to our room for a second.” “Our room…”, Tsukishima started, only to shake himself out of his impulse to indulge in what he would otherwise deem to be ‘unnecessary conversation’, “--you know what? Nevermind. I don’t really care. Are we doing this run or what?”. “Crankyshima”, Hinata grinned up at the taller boy.

Before the blonde could respond, Hinata began stretching out his legs as he said, “Follow me. I know a really scenic path we can take.” Tsukishima, who’d followed the redhead’s lead and was stretching out his own limbs, raised an eyebrow and asked, “How do you  _ know  _ a path in  _ Tokyo?”.  _ Hinata grinned sheepishly. “Well, the last time we were here, there was this one time that Kuroo wanted Kenma to train with him, and Kenma asked me to come, too. It’s really nice, I promise!”, Hinata beamed, “Are you ready?”.

With a reflexive eye roll, Tsukishima scoffed, “Sure.”

 

The two jogged in relative silence for nearly twenty minutes, down a path that wove along back roads, up hills, and through forests. As the two neared the end of the woods, the redhead slowed from a brisk jog to a quick walk; Tsukishima followed suit. Soon the canopy of the trees opened up to reveal a breathtaking panorama: before the boys stood a steel guardrail, curved around the ground’s topography, beyond which was a gorgeous view of Tokyo, lights glittering like flickering candles down below.

“Woah”, the blonde heard himself gasp, “...this is beautiful.” “Isn’t it?”, Hinata beamed at the tall blonde, who was still transfixed on the sight before him.

Tsukishima approached the rail, placing his palms down on the cool metal as he hunched over and did his best to take in the expansive vista. Hinata tried his hardest to remain quiet and allow the blonde the chance to absorb the scenery, but it was mere moments before he couldn't contain himself any longer. 

“I'm really glad I got to share this view with you”, he grinned over to Tsukishima, who quickly whipped his head towards the smaller boy. _ “What?”,  _ the blonde spat, a tone nearing disgust rolling off his tongue. “W- well”, started Hinata, shuffling his feet anxiously,  _ “Obviously  _ if I could've shared this place with my soulmate, I would have. But--  _ heh--  _ seeing as we haven't met, I had to find someone else to show it to. Bakageyama probably wouldn't care about something like this. All he cares about is making sure he's getting as much practice time in as humanly possible. I'm not super close to any of our senpai, and-- I dunno-- bringing Yachi here would be  _ weird.”  _ “So I got invited by process of elimination?”, Tsukishima scoffed, rolling his eyes and turning back to the view before him. “Uh, kinda”, the redhead answered. He found himself grateful that Tsukishima was so entranced by the scenic overlook, for he was sure that he was blushing so brightly that, even under the veil of night, the blonde would still be able to tell.

Hinata took in a sharp breath.  _ ‘He’s distracted…’,  _ the redhead thought to himself, quickly but silently shoving his hand into his pocket. Earlier that evening, when Tsukishima messaged him recanting his desire for solitude, a strange thought wandered through Hinata's mind. Oddly enough, the normally air-headed redhead found himself unable to shake this thought off, and knew that there was only one way to settle the sudden question he found himself bothered by. His hands found what they were searching for, and soon he was uncapping a marker, gently placing the cap on the back of the utensil before raising it to his skin. Hinata took a deep breath to muster up his courage, and then quickly placed the tip of his marker to his left arm, where he simply drew a small heart. 

He held his breath as he quickly snaked the marker back into his pocket, his eyes fixed on the blonde before him. And suddenly it was as if a jolt of lightning shot through the blonde. Hinata watched in disbelief as a shiver seemed to run from the top of Tsukishima's head down through his spine, his face turning instinctively down to his left arm, where his right arm had raised the sleeve. The taller boy seemed to stare at his arm for a moment, and just like that, the heart on Hinata's own skin faded into the flesh below. 

The idea that Tsukishima may have been Hinata's soulmate had been more of a silly fantasy than anything else. There wasn't a moment that the redhead truly believed that the cranky blonde had been the person he communicated with every single night without fail. Receiving confirmation that this thought was  _ not  _ just a fleeting whim based off of what Hinata was pretty sure was a crush on the blonde after all felt like a punch to the gut.  _ 'Tsukishima?!’,  _ cried the panicked voice in Hinata's head,  _ ‘ _ **_My_ ** _ soulmate?! It's-- it's just not possible!’.  _ The redhead's mind swirled desperately as it tried to unknot the mess of thoughts that had been created by this discovery.  _ 'It can't be’,  _ he thought to himself, his eyes searching the sights before him but utterly blind to what he was seeing.

“Let's start heading back”, came the sudden interruption that was Tsukishima's voice. Hinata looked up and saw the blonde pulling at his left sleeve. “Oh-- uh-- s- sure”, the redhead mumbled, his face blanched with panic. His affect was such a clear departure from his usual personality that even Tsukishima took notice. “...Are you okay?”, the blonde asked begrudgingly, loath to take part in small talk but ultimately unable to ignore the fact that Hinata Shōyō was acting  _ off.  _ Well-- more 'off’ than usual.

“Y- yeah”, muttered the redhead, completely incapable of bringing his eyes to meet Tsukishima's, “Let's go”.

The second half of the boys’ run felt more like a race than anything. Tsukishima struggled to keep up with the redhead and even lost sight of the smaller boy a handful of times. He tried yelling, “Wait up!”, or, “Slow down”, but the wind whipping past their ears always drowned out his voice. If it weren't for the fact that he was completely and utterly lost without his fellow middle blocker, Tsukishima would've permitted Hinata to just run off on his own, as he seemed so determined to do, and would've simply confronted the redhead on his weird behavior when they met back up at the school. Instead he pushed himself as hard as he could to try to keep up. 

Tsukishima expected that, once they made it to the school gates, Hinata would stop and laugh about getting carried away or whatever, and found himself slowing down a bit once the high school at was in sight. Hinata, however, did not slow down, and soon sped off out of sight, leaving a confused, exhausted, and somewhat irritated Tsukishima in his dust.

Hinata kept running until he got to the forest at the edge of the school grounds, where he quickly threw himself down behind a tree on the outskirts of the woods. His mind had raced as fast as his legs did on his run back to the school, and by the time his butt met the ground, he knew without question that his soulmate really  _ was  _ Tsukishima. There were so many things over the years of their conversation that, on their own, seemed fairly innocuous, but when combined, painted a clear picture of Tsukishima Kei. Things like his attention to his studies or his being on a volleyball team (at Hinata's insistence). Things like his rants that seemed to mirror Hinata's, or even his love of dinosaurs (when matched up with the dinosaurs Hinata had seen in his room). His description of his best friend. His lamentation of his course load. The way he wrote properly and neatly at all times. The first words they exchanged over eleven years prior. It all added up…

Hinata wasn't sure how he would ever face the blonde again. How could he  _ possibly  _ speak to Tsukishima without revealing all that he knew? But how on Earth could he clue Tsukishima into the fact that Hinata himself was  _ his  _ soulmate?

The redhead's head was swimming. He had no clue what he was supposed to do. The only thing he really knew what that he had to figure it out, and fast: curfew was a mere forty-five minutes away, and once the school was on lockdown, Hinata would have no choice but to face the boy he now knew to be his soulmate.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hiiiii everyoneeeee. I'm so sorry this took so long. I'm the reason this fic has been updated so slowly. My life has just been a little chaotic lately. I finally got a job (!!!) (And those of you who have been following my other works know how long I've been looking) and my LTR almost ended (which was not great, and would've completely changed my life [for the worse, obviously]). Things have evened out a bit, which I'm grateful for, but it took a lot of work for me to get to the point where I could write recreationally again.
> 
> Hopefully this chapter was worth the wait? I'm sure S&C will have your next update faster this time :P


	18. Missing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tsukishima is at a loss as to what happened with Hinata

Tsukishima Kei stands at the edge of the field, drenched in sweat and still panting from the rigorous workout he'd just been subjected to. As a lone hand wipes the sweat from his brow, he thinks to himself,  _ 'Well, at least I was able to get back to the training camp before I completely lost sight of that idiot’. _ Kei couldn't figure out what Hinata's deal was; one minute he’s asking to go on this run and next thing you know he abandons Kei completely. “Whatever”, the blonde grumbles to himself as he starts off towards the school building, “at least I'm not lost”.

On his way back to his room Kei can’t help but wonder why Hinata decided to bring the blonde to such a scenic location. When he agreed to go for a run with the redhead, he did so under the assumption that Hinata would just take him for a run around the track outside or through a field to work on their training. Yet, when they got to that opening looking over Tokyo, he couldn’t believe that Hinata would even  _ know _ of such a place, let alone take  _ him  _ there, of all people. Tsukishima had to admit it: the vista was absolutely  _ beautiful _ , and he would've been grateful to have gotten the opportunity to see it, were it not for the one factor in all of this that was gnawing at the back of Kei’s mind. While two had been at the cliffside overlooking Tokyo, Hinata had said, “I’m really glad I got to share this view with you”. Kei wasn't quite sure why, but something about this statement stood out to him, and, the more he thought about it, the more he realized that Hinata’s reasoning for bringing him along sounded like nothing more than an excuse. Deep inside of him, something cried out that there has to be more to it than that-- Kei just couldn’t place what that ‘more’ might be.

Kei thinks back to the view and suddenly remembers that he’d received a message from his soulmate. He felt bad about how delayed his response was and, quickly pulling a pen from his pocket, wanders over to a nearby bench where he can respond in peace. “Hey”, Kei begins to write as he sits, “Sorry I didn’t respond to you earlier... I was a little busy.” Quickly the message disappears from his skin but no response comes. Kei sits and waits and tries to be patient, but soon finds himself growing antsy. While it’s only been about five minutes since he sent his last message, something feels  _ off;  _ his soulmate never left him waiting so long-- a privilege, he realizes, that he’s been taking for granted. The fact that it was already after 9pm (so his soulmate should’ve been expecting his message) only made him worry more. He tries to hold out as long as he could, but only a few minutes elapse before he decides to write again, “Is everything okay? If you’re busy it’s okay, but I’d like to talk if you are free.” Once more, Kei watches the message disappear from his skin almost immediately but again there is no response. 

“Hey, Tsukki!”, calls a voice from the darkness, causing the already-on-edge blonde to practically leap out of his seat. He turns and sees his best friend quickly approaching. “I thought you went back to the room earlier, but when I went to go see you, you were nowhere to be found!”, the freckle-faced boy says pleasantly.

“Sorry”, the blonde mumbles, glancing expectantly at his arm once more before turning back to Yamaguchi, “I  _ did  _ go back to the room, but I decided to go for a run.” “So you finally decided to show up to the training camp, huh?,” Yamaguchi asks, beaming, “I know it’s been hard for you to break out of your shell, Tsukki.” Before Kei could respond, Yamaguchi continued, “Did you go on your run alone?”. “No, I didn’t go alone”, the blonde admits, “I went with Hinata, and then he ran away, but I’m not really sure where to.” Kei hopes that Yamaguchi didn’t see the blush crawling up his cheeks.

Yamaguchi looks up at Kei and smirks, “Wow, you guys sure are getting along! Only recently you two practically couldn’t be in the same room as each other! When did you start hanging out one on one with Hinata?”.

Kei blushes at such a poignant question. “I haven’t really been hanging out with him per se... he just asked if I wanted to go for a run... You know how persistent he can be.” 

“Sure Tsukki, whatever you say”, Yamaguchi laughs, though his statement is met with a frown.“What’s  _ that _ supposed to mean?”, asks Kei with a scowl, though he finds that he can hardly keep eye contact with Yamaguchi 

“Nothing, nothing. Don’t worry about it”, Yamaguchi smirks one more time at Kei before changing the topic, asking, “Did you want to go practice a bit with me before curfew?”

“Do I have to?”, the blonde sighs, “It’s so tiring…”.

Yamaguchi frowns at his best friend. “Don’t you want to get better, Tsukki?”, he asks, trying his best to mask his frustration with the obstinate blonde, “You’re a starter on the team and everyone else is working so hard to get better, yet here you are avoiding putting in almost any effort!”

“There’s no point in putting in effort”, scoffs Tsukishima, “it’s not like we're gonna to win. Even if we get lucky and beat Aoba Johsai, then what? We get to play Shiratorizawa, and there’s absolutely no chance we can beat them… And if we're ultimately gonna wind up losing  _ anyway,  _ well then what's the--”. Kei was suddenly cut off by Yamaguchi, saying, “Don’t finish that sentence, Tsukki; I know what you are going to say. But at the end of the day, we both know you’re gonna go practice.”

Kei looked up at Yamaguchi, “You know what? You’re right. But I’ll have to get a raincheck on practicing with you-- I promised someone else I’d work with them tonight.” Yamaguchi just smiled and nodded as Kei said his goodbyes and begun heading over to the gyms.

 

Curfew is edging closer and closer by the time that a bespectacled face peers into the third gym. The moment his eyes meet with those of the person he’d been seeking-- Kuroo Tetsuro from Nekoma-- Kei steps forward and calls, “Hey”.

“Oh look, it’s Tsukki! What’s up?” Kuroo smirks.

“ _Tsk”,_ chuffs Kei, “I told you not to call me that. But… well, I was wondering if I could join you?”. Kei forces a smile; he knows he has to be kind if he has any hope of being helped, but it’s not like he exactly _wants_ to spend time with Kuroo or Bokuto…

“Of course you can join us, Tsukki”, Kuroo grins mischievously, “We were working on our blocks.” Kei spends the next 30 minutes working as hard as he think he ever has on the court; his arms are flushed and sting from all of the blocks, and, to be honest Kei didn’t really want to end for the night, but curfew was coming up and he didn’t need to get in any trouble. So Kei says his goodbyes and promises he will practice with the boys of the third gym tomorrow. 

 

Upon returning to his room, Kei begins to get himself ready for bed and quickly notices a problem: all of the first years have returned to their sleeping quarters except for Hinata. Kei was getting worried; he couldn’t imagine where the little redhead could possibly have gone or what was going on with him, but he knows Hinata has been acting weird ever since their run earlier. Kei was getting worried but wasn’t sure what to do. He heard Daichi and Suga go around and ask if anyone has seen Hinata, but Kei was too distracted to care to pay attention. Kei looks at his phone and realize he’s waited almost 30 minutes and figured Hinata wasn’t going to show up and since Kei himself wasn't allowed to leave the room, there wasn’t much he could do besides go to sleep and hope Hinata would be there in the morning.  

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I want to apologize and thank everyone for being so patient with these recent uploads. I just finished school a week ago and left the country recently and have been swamped. Hopefully the upload schedule will be better going forward.   
> Once again thank you all for your support and feel free to leave any comments below.


	19. Coming to Terms

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hinata comes to terms with the new knowledge he's just gained.

Hinata Shōyō felt like he was losing his mind. It had been two hours since he’d run away from Tsukishima, but the adrenaline was still coursing through his veins as if he were actively racing down the path to the school.

As he sat there, his back pressed against the rough bark of the large tree he sought shelter behind, his mind churned, replaying the events of the last day, week, month, over and over inside his head. He _knew_ his reaction was immature. But still, finding out that Tsukishima Kei was the person he’d been talking to and falling in love with for over a decade was too much for him to handle; upon learning this information, Hinata began to feel as if someone were squeezing his chest, pushing down harder and harder til he could no longer breathe. He _had_ to run away. He couldn’t have stayed there… with Tsukishima. 

And it wasn't helping that, only minutes after fleeing from the blonde, Hinata had begun getting messages written across his arm.  _'Hey',_ the first read,  _'Sorry I didn't respond to you earlier... I was a little busy.'_ There was absolutely no way that Hinata could bring himself to respond-- not now that he  _knew._ A few minutes later, a second message came in, reading,  _'Is everything okay? If you’re busy it’s okay, but I’d like to talk if you are free.'_ Hinata's stomach roiled as he looked upon the handwriting he now recognized to be Tsukishima's.  _'How have I never noticed that before?!',_ he asked himself in utter disbelief. After all, he'd knowingly seen Tsukishima's handwriting  _dozens_ of times, especially with all the tutoring the blonde had been doing lately. The last message came in much later, though Hinata was still seated in the small forest outside of the school, deep in thought about his situation, reading,  _'Hey, I hope everything's okay. I'm going to bed now, but if you need me, just message me. Goodnight.'_ Hinata sighed as the message faded from his skin.  _'Great',_ he thought to himself,  _'Not only did I run away from Tsukishima after asking him to go on a run with me... I'm also hurting him as his soulmate.'_ A shudder ran through him as he thought the word 'soulmate'. 

The more he thought about it, the less sense it made; how could _he_ be soulmates with _Tsukishima?_ Tsukishima Kei, the first year who _actively hated Hinata’s guts._ Tsukishima, the boy who constantly made fun of Hinata and everything he's ever said or done. Tsukishima, the boy who blew up on Hinata publicly for falling asleep. It just didn’t make sense! Everything about them was _so_ different!

Hinata struggled to catch his breath as these thoughts raced through his mind. Every little thing that Tsukishima had done-- from the day they met all the way to calling him an idiot earlier that afternoon completely contradicted the idea of them being soulmates! He was cold, cruel, and blunt, while Hinata’s own soulmate was anything but.

 _‘My soulmate...’,_ Hinata repeated in his head, his lips tracing the words as his heart pounded inside his chest. Hinata couldn’t say how, exactly, he pictured his soulmate; he was pretty sure that it was a guy, but other than that, he pictured a normal boy around his age, with gentle eyes and a bright smile. A boy who shared his passion for volleyball and general outlook on life. Someone who understood him effortlessly and had an endless well of patience. Someone who was loving and devoted-- they’d _have_ to be, to have spoken to him nearly every single night for over a decade! Thinking back on it, the person he’d developed in his mind as the embodiment of the words ‘soul mate’ didn’t match up with the man he knew Tsukishima Kei to be _at all!_  And yet…

Hinata had seen the evidence with his own eyes. He saw Tsukishima check the _exact_ place on his arm that he'd sent his own soulmate a message. Tsukishima then suggested that the two should head back, and Hinata’s soulmate didn't respond until the two were long separated. It was just a whim that encouraged the redhead to pick up a marker on his way to meet the tall blocker that evening. He’d had no solid beliefs about _who_ his soulmate could be. Thinking on it, that likely played a big role in why he was so shocked when he realized that his mere curiosity was, in fact, the truth.

 _‘Is it really that far-fetched?’,_ Hinata thought to himself, reflecting on the feelings he’d been experiencing while he was anywhere near Tsukishima. _‘He’s really handsome’,_ the redhead thought, his face growing hot as he mustered up the courage to be honest with himself, _‘Like,_ **_really_ ** _handsome. I get butterflies everytime I’m around him. And, even if he’s mean all the time, I still have a lot of fun whenever we’re together.’_

All of a sudden Hinata’s stomach lurched. _‘Am I… am I_ **_really_ ** _okay with this?’,_ he asked himself as he gripped his abdomen, _‘Am I really okay with my soulmate… being Tsukishima?’._ He thought on this for a long moment before realizing that it didn’t _matter_ whether he was okay with it or not; unless a whole bunch of _extreme_ coincidences occurred earlier, Tsukishima Kei was, indeed, Hinata’s soulmate, whether Hinata wanted him to be or not. Strangely enough, this thought brought Hinata a great deal of comfort, as he realized that the only thing he could possibly do was accept the situation. _‘But’,_ he wondered to himself, _‘Will Tsukishima be as accepting of this news when he finds out?’._

Hinata felt his heart skip a beat. He hadn’t even _thought_ of what would happen when Tsukishima found out. His hands, which had wandered down to the forest floor, anxiously gripped at the grass beneath his fingertips. _“Tsukishima’s reaction…”,_ he muttered aloud, a chill running down his spine as the words left his lips.

 _Tsukishima’s reaction._ Who could possibly predict Tsukishima’s reaction? Hinata couldn’t imagine a scenario in which the lanky blonde was happy, no matter how hard he tried. Every scenario his mind proposed either ended up in Tsukishima freaking out or having a meltdown. But still, the redhead couldn’t help but wonder… now that Hinata knew who his soulmate was, wasn’t he _morally obligated_ to tell Tsukishima? And how _exactly_ would he go about doing such a thing, when he knew without a doubt that the blonde’s reaction would be less than accepting?

 

The evening had cooled down significantly since Hinata first met up with Tsukishima. As the redhead glanced up at the half-moon that had nearly completely ascended into the sky, a shiver ran down his spine, spreading goosebumps across his flesh. It had gotten late. Hinata was sure that he’d missed curfew, and would only be in more trouble the longer it took him to get back to the room he was supposed to be sleeping in.

As he slowly pushed himself up onto his feet, he breathed a sigh of relief. _‘Yes’,_ he thought to himself, _‘I’m definitely feeling better about this.’_ Though, as he began walking towards the school, that thought was quickly followed up with another: _‘Now I just have to figure out how to make Tsukishima okay with it…’._

“HINATA SHŌYŌ!”, came a sudden yell as the redhead approached the school. Hinata jumped and looked around, but he couldn’t figure out where it was coming from until, suddenly, five yards in front of him, appeared the silvery locks of his senpai, Sugawara Kōshi. What was a brief sense of relief upon identifying the source of the voice quickly turned to ice-cold fear as soon as Hinata saw the terrifying expression on his vice captain’s face.

“Where have you been?!”, Sugawara reprimanded, “The whole team’s been out looking for you!”. “The… whole… team…?”, Hinata repeated, suddenly picturing Tsukishima scouring the school grounds looking for him. “Well-- er-- not the _whole_ team Sugawara replied, folding his arms in front of him, “Just me and Daichi. But still! You know better! You should’ve been in your room at nine sharp! What gives?!”.

The redhead remained silent before asking, “Um… Sugawara-san? Can I… talk to you?”. A look of confusion flashing across his face, the blonde nodded, but quickly added, “You can talk all you want _while we go back to the room.”_ “Fair enough”, Hinata grinned as the two started walking back towards the school.

 

Fifteen minutes later, Hinata pulled the door to the first years’ room open as quietly as possible, so as to not disturb his classmates. He walked over to his cot and slipped under the covers, laying flat on his back for several minutes before he worked up the courage to look over at Tsukishima.

As his eyes roamed across the smooth, pale terrain that was Tsukishima’s face, he found himself thinking, _‘So that’s the person I’m supposed to spend the rest of my life with, huh?’._

A moment later, he smiled to himself in the darkness, _‘I can live with that.'_

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hinata's fine! Just freaking out :P
> 
> Just wanted to let you guys know that I posted my DaiSuga Fantasy AU (again >_> I deleted it during that long break on this fic, cuz life was too hectic. But I've since written four more chapters for it and decided it was time to post again!). Feel free to [check it out](https://archiveofourown.org/works/16645916/chapters/39027881)!


	20. Guilt

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hinata copes with his newfound knowledge of his soulmate's identity.

For the rest of the practice camp, Hinata Shōyō did his absolute best to avoid Tsukishima at all costs. He knew it didn’t make much sense, but he felt really guilty every time he so much as glanced at the blonde. After all, he alone possessed the knowledge that the two boys had been longing for for years upon years. By Sunday night, Hinata was relieved at the thought of only having to spend one more night-- less than twenty-four hours-- in the nonstop company of Tsukishima Kei-- the boy he just discovered to be his soulmate.

Hinata was pretty sure that Tsukishima didn’t even _notice_ that he was being avoided by him; it wasn’t like they spoke much _anyway._ However, it was all but fact to the redhead that his silence in skinscript was definitely hurting Tsukishima. Though he did his best to keep his attention off of the blonde, Hinata swore that Tsukishima seemed almost _melancholy_ as the days wore on without a response from his soulmate. And, honestly, Hinata felt really bad about it.

He agonized over the perceived change in Tsukishima’s demeanor as often as he saw the blonde, and the longer he took to respond, the more guilty he felt, until the weight of his guilt finally became too much to bear.

On the last night of their training camp, immediately after his shower, Hinata left the first years’ room, saying he just needed to get some air. “Make sure you’re back before curfew”, warned a severe Yamaguchi, “I don’t want to have to deal with Daichi being that mad again”. “Yeah”, muttered Kageyama with a mouth full of rice from the onigiri he’d saved from dinner, “But even if he’sh out late, Shugawara-shan’ll shmooth thingsh over again.” Hinata frowned at his two teammates. “I'll be back before curfew, don't worry”, he replied shortly, turning and leaving the room before his friends had another chance to try to stop him.

He walked down the hallway, turned a corner, and threw himself on the floor. He quickly fished out a pen from his pocket and brought it up to his arm. He'd decided that, no matter what, he needed to apologize to Tsukishima and try to figure out how to break the news to him. Now, he figured, was the best time to do it, as the blonde had just headed into the showers himself; he could write his message and go back to the room without Tsukishima knowing that it was him.

_'But what to say…?’,_ he wondered to himself as the pen hovered over his forearm. He thought and he thought, doing his best to diplomatically word his apology so that he can begin to smooth things over with his soulmate.

_Hey,_ he finally started, _I'm sorry I haven't been around lately. I've been going through some stuff, but I know my silence is unfair to you. I hope you can forgive me :(_

He watched as the ink sank into his flesh and sighed. All of a sudden he heard a loud gasp. His head snapped up, and there, to his left, stood none other than Tsukishima Kei, a look of abject horror plastered across his face as he looked from his arm… to Hinata.

All the redhead could think was, _'Shit’._

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey all! Sorry this took so long! Originally S&C and I were going to do a collaborative chapter, but his chapter turned out to be more than long enough on its own, so I just decided to post this on its own. :) 
> 
> Next chapter should be up very, very soon!


	21. Desolation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kei decides something has to be done about Hinata

On his third consecutive day spent away from home, Tsukishima found himself fostering a newfound hatred for away camps. It was bad enough that he was expected to socialize with other teams to begin with, but when combined with the fact that a certain member of his own team had been acting very strangely, the whole situation became a nightmare for Kei. His only reassurance was that it would all be over soon.

Still… Hinata was behaving even stranger than usual, and this bothered Kei to an inexplicable degree. Everything seemed to be fine until, midway through their run on the first night of the camp, Hinata saw fit to take off and ditch the blonde. Since then, the two had scarcely exchanged a word, and Tsukishima couldn't help but think that his fellow middle blocker was actively avoiding him. Each time he'd so much as glance to Hinata, the redhead would look away, and it almost seemed as if Hinata was specifically avoiding  _ him.  _

And Hinata wasn’t the only person who seemed to be avoiding him. Throughout the entirety of the training camp, Kei had gotten one single message from his soulmate: a heart. His soulmate had sent the message, unprompted, on the evening of the first night of the camp. Since then, no matter how much the blonde wrote, his soulmate had not responded to him, in spite of having read every single word he wrote.  _ ‘I wonder if something’s wrong’,  _ the blonde thought to himself as he mulled over the situation for the thousandth time,  _ ‘Something  _ **_must_ ** _ be wrong. My soulmate has never ignored me like this before. ...did I offend them or something?’.  _

Once the formal practice session of the third day was dismissed and the groups of students from Nekoma, Fukurodani, and Karasuno each split off into groups to practice on their own, Tsukishima couldn’t help but feel completely alone. Yamaguchi had joined a group playing in the first gym, and though he invited Kei to join him, the blonde knew he wasn’t actually welcome; after all, both Hinata and the King were in the same group. He shrugged his freckled best friend off and wandered around campus for a little bit, feeling his frustration and irritation mounting.  _ ‘I need to do something to burn off this energy before I snap’,  _ he thought to himself. He soon remembered that he’d been invited to join in on the practice going on in the third gym, and set off in that direction.

“Hey, hey, hey!”, grinned Bokuto as Tsukishima appeared in the doorway to the third gym, “Look who it is!”. The numerous heads of various volleyball players all turned to look towards Kei. “Are you finally taking us up on our offer, Tsukki?”, beamed Kuroo. “...don’t call me that”, glared the blonde as he strode over to the court.

“Wow, Tsukishima!”, Bokuto started after a particularly intense match in which Tsukishima’s near-impossible block scored the final point, “You’re on  _ fire  _ tonight! It’s like you’re a completely different person!”. “Yeah”, laughed Kuroo from beside Kei, “I’d hate to be facing you in a  _ real  _ game right now!”. The blonde shrugged in an effort to keep up his indifferent facade, though inside he still felt close to boiling over.

He sat alone at dinner evening, choosing to keep his headphones in as he tucked himself away in the furthest corner he could find from his fellow first years in an effort to stave off any unwanted interactions. He even went so far as to intentionally ignore Yamaguchi’s request to sit with him, justifying it to himself with the thought that he wouldn’t be able to hear his friend if he’d actually had music playing through the headphones he was wearing. 

He left as soon as he was finished eating, intent on returning to the first years’ room and falling asleep before anyone else could guilt him into socialization. However, those intentions changed the moment that the blonde opened the door to their living quarters; his eyes were met with a familiar pair of amber irises, which he immediately recognized as belonging to Hinata Shōyō. He quickly muttered a mouthful of words excusing himself, then left as quickly as he arrived.

Kei walked around the campus of Nekoma High for a while and let his mind wander back to his present situation. He shuddered at the thought of what awkwardness could’ve come from him sticking around the first years’ room. He was certain that, if he hadn’t excused himself, Hinata would’ve done so. With the way his fellow middle blocker had been acting recently, he couldn’t picture the scenario playing out otherwise. 

A glance down his shoulder reminded the blonde of the other person who seemed to be ignoring him. He felt a sharp pang in his chest as he unconsciously began to quantify how many hours, how many minutes it had been since he last heard from his soulmate.  _ ‘Was it something I said?’,  _ he thought to himself,  _ ‘Did I offend my soulmate somehow? I can't imagine what it could've been… But if I  _ **_didn't_ ** _ , why wouldn't they respond?’.  _ Kei thought on this for a moment before a realization sent a stabbing pain through his heart.  _ ‘What if’,  _ he thought to himself, dread mounting as he forced himself to mentally articulate the thought that had come to him,  _ ‘...What if something happened to them? …what if they're hurt or sick or something? Does skinscript even go through if your soulmate dies?’.  _

A sudden vibration in the blonde's pocket sent a violent shudder up his spine, the shift in his focus so abrupt that it practically had him reeling. It took a long moment for him to process that the interruption to his worried thoughts was his cell phone; upon realizing this, he pulled the offending device from his pocket and clicked the screen on 

 

**Yamaguchi (8:14pm):** Hey Tsukki, im pretty sure you want to be left alone right now, but I just wanted to let you know that the shower's open

**Yamaguchi (8:14pm):** so if you were planning on showering tonight, you should probably do it soon, since curfew is in like 45 mins

 

Kei frowned at his phone. He definitely needed a shower, after all the hard work he'd put into practice that evening; he just wasn't ready to head back to the first years’ room and face Hinata again. With another frown at the device and a sigh, Tsukishima turned and started walking back to the makeshift dormitory. As he approached the room, he pulled his phone back out and, pulling up a random screen, fixed his eyes on it in the hopes that it would serve as an adequate excuse to get out of conversations.

The blonde pulled the door open and immediately became aware that the room had fallen silent. “Hey Tsukki”, Yamaguchi said quietly. Glancing up from his phone, Kei replied, “...hey. Uh, thanks for the text”. “No problem!”, beamed the freckled boy. Tsukishima glanced over to the other occupants of the room. Hinata seemed to be digging through his duffle bag, while Kageyama was unwrapping what appeared to be some sort of food. He shook his head briefly before approaching his own bag, fishing out clean clothes, and leaving the room without so much as another word.

Not twenty minutes later, he was stepping out of the shower. For the first time in several days, he felt  _ relaxed.  _ He’d had a lot of time to think in the shower, and a lot to think about, and felt that, over all, it had been a fairly productive shower. The moment he’d stepped under the water, he felt all of his stresses begin to melt off of him, and soon he found himself thinking clearly for the first time in days, completely unclouded by his emotions. He thought long and hard on his soulmate situation, and ultimately forced himself to come to terms with the fact that there was nothing he could do to resolve things on his own; he realized that the only thing he really  _ could  _ do was assume his soulmate had both of their best interests at heart and would explain his absence when he returned. 

He spent a fair amount of time contemplating the  _ other  _ mysterious source of silence in his life as well, and decided that the first thing he should do is check with someone else to see if Hinata even  _ was  _ acting strangely, or if it was-- somehow-- all in Kei’s head. As soon as he left the washroom, the blonde headed resolutely towards the first year’s rooms, fully intent on consulting his long time best friend. He pulled the door to the room open slowly, anxiety rising at the thought of another awkward interaction with Hinata, and was surprised to find the room vacant save for Yamaguchi, who sat on his sleeping bag reading a book.

“Oh! Tsukki!”, Yamaguchi grinned, “Welcome back!”. “Thanks”, Kei muttered, eyes darting nervously around the room before he asked, “Where are the idiots?”. “Kageyama and Hinata?”, Yamaguchi laughed through an airy chuckle, “Let’s see… Kageyama went to go get one more carton of milk before curfew, and Hinata said he needed fresh air or something?”. “I see…”, Kei remarked quietly, rubbing the back of his head as he tried to think of what would be the best way to bring up the topic without being awkward. Fortunately, his best friend recognized his pained expression and broke the ice for him. “Is something bothering you, Tsukki?”, Yamaguchi asked pleasantly. The blonde shrugged, “...have… have you noticed Hinata being… I dunno, weird lately?”. Yamaguchi smiled softly and gently shut his book. “I was wondering when you were gonna say something”, the freckled boy grinned, “...I tried talking to Hinata, too cuz I thought he was being a little, eh,  _ off.  _ And he mumbled something about you two not getting along or something and found an excuse to leave the conversation. I don’t know what you did to him, but he really wants  _ no  _ part of you!”. Tsukishima scowled over at his best friend. “For your  _ information,  _ **_I_ ** didn’t do  _ anything!  _ He just got really  _ weird  _ in the middle of our run the other night! And I mean, weirder than usual! By a lot!”. Yamaguchi simpered and shrugged at the blonde. “I don’t know, Tsukki. Sometimes you’re not as gentle as you think you are. Maybe you should consider apologizing to him and just try to move forward from whatever it is you did.” Kei seemed to consider these options for a long moment, lulling his head from side to side as if weighing invisible pros and cons.  

Suddenly the blonde climbed to his feet. “You’re right”, he announced, “I think I’ll try that. I’m tired of how awkward things have been around here, and if it  _ was  _ my fault, then I guess it’s the right thing to do anyway.” “I’m so proud of you, Tsukki!”, beamed Yamaguchi, “You don’t usually go outside of your comfort zone and express that you care about other people!” “Yeah, well, don’t go getting used to it either”, the young man shrugged, “I’m just annoyed by this situation-- that’s all.” The blonde pulled the door to their room open, and as he stepped out, Yamaguchi shook his head and quietly sighed, “If you say so, Tsukki…”.

Tsukishima did his best to shrug off Yamaguchi’s flippant comment as he set out in search of Hinata.  _ ‘Yamaguchi said Hinata needed fresh air, so I guess I should look around outside real quick. I mean, it’s almost curfew, so he should be on his way back now, if he has any common sense.’  _ The blonde started towards the nearest entrance. He walked down the hall and turned right at the end, and was pleasantly surprised to see the boy he was searching for sitting in the corner less than three yards away, attention completely fixed on his arm, which he’d propped up on his left knee. He appeared to be writing on his skin. Kei opened his mouth to call out, “Hey”, when a sudden, familiar tingling sensation began climbing up his left arm. His eyes instinctively wandered down from his shoulder, where he saw that it was, indeed, a message on his flesh, and a lengthy one at that. However, as he turned back to Hinata, something clicked in his mind when he realized that Hinata  _ also  _ had a long message written on his skin. It was also in the same spot that Kei’s was on his own arm. And, as Hinata continued to scrawl away on his own flesh, Tsukishima could feel the writing growing.

His heart sank.

_ ‘Hinata Shōyō--’,  _ he thought to himself, gasping as he desperately clutched the wall beside him for fear that he might actually pass out,  _ ‘-- _ **_my_ ** _ soulmate?! It… it can’t be!’ _ . Kei’s left arm gripped his abdomen, where stabbing pains warned him that was about to throw up. The redhead’s head snapped up in response to Tsukishima’s sharp gasp, and immediately all the color drained from his face. Kei tried to make sense of what he was seeing, his eyes darting from his arm to Hinata’s. It was all so much more than the blonde could take. 

Without a word, Tsukishima bolted past Hinata and ran out of the school as quickly as his legs could carry him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone, I'm glad to be uploading again, Hopefully everything speeds back up. I want to thank everyone for being so patient in waiting for these updates and I hope you enjoy.
> 
> Fixed some spacing


	22. Collapse

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> How will Kei take this new info?

Kei doesn’t think he’s ever run this fast in his entire life. He wants to believe he heard Hinata call after him but the tall blond refused to turn back and find out. The events keep swirling through his mind; looking at the words Hinata was writing and seeing them burned into his arms was too much for Kei to handle. There was no way Hinata knew, _right?_ Of he did, he would have said something, _right!?_ But looking back Kei realizes that Hinata was already acting really weird. Kei’s mind swirled, and he felt himself beginning to become light-headed as he replayed the same harried thoughts in his head time and time again.

A gust of wind sends a shiver down the blonde's spine. He glances around at his surroundings and frowns; he is surprised to find himself across the campus of the school, well past the dorms and the gyms, just off of the walkway leading up to the fields on the edge of the property. Kei doesn’t know how he got so far away already but everything was a blur. Breathing a sigh of relief that no one seems to have followed him, the blonde walks up to a large tree and sat down against it and sighed.in truth, Tsukishima knows that he can’t keep running away from the situation, but as things were, there was no way he could step foot into that first years room right now.

_‘I need to think this through’,_ the blonde thinks to himself, his heart pounding in his ears, _'No matter how I look at it, this doesn’t make sense. In fact,_ **_nothing_ ** _makes any sense!’._ Kei could feel the panic rising in him; tossing his glasses carelessly to his side, he rests his face in his hands and lets out a muffled shout.

Kei begins to feel the heat of tears build up in the corners of his eyes. He instinctively reaches for his headphones that always rest safely on his neck, only to realize he must have left them back in the first years dorm. Struggling out a sigh he looks up to the night sky. The moon and the stars all appear so bright tonight, reminding Kei of his walk with Hinata only a few day prior… _No_! His mind stops at the thought of Hinata again. Why can’t Kei get Hinata-- _his soulmate--_ out of his head?! It just doesn’t make sense! _'I mean,_ ** _sure,_** _there have been a_ ** _few_** _time_ s _where I gave him a second thought’,_ the blonde reluctantly admitted to himself, _'But we're polar opposites! We literally have nothing in common! It'd make so much more sense if Hinata's soulmate was someone like Kageyama or something!’_ The mere thought of the word 'Hinata’ sends shivers up Tsukishima's spine, drawing his attention back up to the full-blown migraine he'd developed since he bolted out of the school.

Kei heard his phone ring out from his pocket. With his anxiety mounting as he pulls out the buzzing device, he sees that Yamaguchi is trying to call him. When the call finally goes to voicemail, the blonde notices that this was not his best friend's first attempt at calling him; he'd missed several calls and messages from the freckled pinch server. He sighs in frustration, a single tear leaking from the corner of his eye as he thinks to himself, _‘Why can’t people leave me alone right now? Why can’t this training camp be over so I can be back in my room away from all this bullshit? Why can’t I seem to get away from Hinata?’._ Kei's attention is suddenly drawn down to the phone he’s been clenching in his fist as it utters out one last vibration. He quickly realized that it vibrated because Yamaguchi had left a voice message. He scrolls through his notifications and sees that  his best friend isn't the only person who'd been trying to get in contact with him; he had unread texts from Sugawara, Daichi, and even a missed message from Hinata.

_‘Why would Hinata want to talk to me?’,_ Kei thought to himself in a panic, his heart pounding in his ears, _'He has to have figured out that I know he's my soulmate at this point, especially with how I ran off…’._ His heart skipped a beat as his thoughts took a darker turn. _'Why…?’,_ he asked himself, _'Why would anyone want me as their soulmate? Especially someone like_ **_him_ ** _? It just doesn't make any sense!’._

A sudden rustling to his right snaps Kei's attention from his thoughts, his head turning just in time to catch a familiar face emerging from the thick of trees. “Tsukishima!”, gasps Hinata, worry written so clearly across his face that it may as well have been in marker, “I finally found you! You scared the crap out of me!”. The redhead hunches over and puts his hands on his knees as he tries to catch his breath.

“Scared you…?”, the blonde repeated hesitantly. The smaller boy looked up at Tsukishima incredulously. “Of course you scared me!”, he exclaimed, almost sounding as if Kei's question hurt him, “... listen, Tsukishima, we need to talk.”

Kei nodded, though there was a huge part of him that felt as if were screaming. He wasn't ready to have this conversation. He wasn't ready to admit that his soulmate is none other than Hinata Shōyō.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone, I feel bad for the delay, I should've posted this a while ago but life was getting tough on me. I want to thank everyone who has taken the time to read this and stuck with us through all of these delays.


	23. The Wise Words of Sugawara Kōshi

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hinata enlists the help of his senpai to try to deal with the situation with Tsukishima.

Things were peaceful in the room that had been reserved for the second- and third- years from Karasuno at Nekoma High. Nishinoya and Tanaka-- who were usually the rowdiest in the room-- had passed out the moment they returned from their respective showers, after a really tough day of rigorous practice and harsh punishments. The three third years sat and talked quietly amongst each other as the second years slept, with only the occasional snore or groan interrupting their conversation.

“Oh well”, sighed Daichi, “Hopefully these guys learned something from training with Nekoma and Fukurodani.” “I’m sure they did”, Sugawara replied with a frown, glancing back towards Tanaka and Nishinoya, “I only worry that they might have gotten lessons on how to be bigger nuisances from the other two captains.” “Hey!”, Daichi frowned, “Kuroo and Bokuto might be-- er-- _unconventional_ picks for captains, but you have to admit, they both really know their stuff!”. “Their blocks are a force to be reckoned with”, frowned Asahi from his sleeping bag.

“Oh. Fifteen minutes until curfew”, Sugawara casually remarked, glancing at the clock that hung above the door. It was hard to believe that they’d spent the better part of three days living out of a classroom, but here they were. Daichi rolled his head, stretching his neck before replying, “I’ll go check on the first years in a couple of minutes.” “Daichi”, laughed Sugawara, “After Friday night, I’m _certain_ that no one would _dare_ stay out a _second_ past nine o’clock.” “Yeah, man”, Asahi laughed, “You were really scary. I’m definitely glad I wasn’t on that end of your lecture.” “Lecture?!”, scoffed Daichi indignantly, “I’ll have you know, I never--”.

Daichi’s words seemed to fade out as Sugawara became increasingly aware of a pounding noise that was only getting louder. He looked around to see if anyone else had noticed it, and found that both of his companions had fallen completely silent, both of them sitting with their eyes fixed on the door. It was only then that Sugawara realized that the sound he was hearing was thundering footsteps. A fraction of a second after coming to this conclusion, the door to their room slammed open, revealing--

“Hinata?!”, Sugawara gasped, “Hinata, what are you--”. “Sugawara-san!”, the redhead cried, “I fucked up!”. “Hinata, language!”, Daichi admonished, “And, in the first place, it’s almost nine o’clock-- what are you doing out of--”. Sugawara put his hand out, signalling for Daichi to stop talking for a moment. “Hinata, what do you mean, you ‘fucked up’?”, the blond asked, his heart beating in his throat. Dropping to his knees, Hinata cried, “Tsukishima found out!”. “Shit”, Sugawara muttered under his breath, “You really _did_ fuck up.” The co-captain rose to his feet and asked, “Where is he now?”. A look of utter panic and exasperation flashed across Hinata’s face, telling Sugawara more than words could. With an air of utmost authority, Sugawara turned to his friends and said, “Daichi, Asahi-- wake Tanaka and Nishinoya up, go get Kageyama and Yamaguchi, and start searching the grounds for Tsukishima. Hinata, come with me-- we can look while you tell me exactly what happened.”

As Hinata led Sugawara to where he'd been when Tsukishima ran off, the young redhead couldn't help but reflect on how similar a feeling this walk had to the walk back to the school on Friday night.

 

\---

 

It had only been the night before last when, in the middle of being reprimanded, Hinata asked to speak privately with his senpai, who ultimately relented and let the redhead get whatever was bothering him off his chest.

“Sugawara-san…”, Hinata started nervously as the two began walking back towards Nekoma High, “...what would you have done if your soulmate _wasn't_ someone you got along well with, and was, instead, someone who hated your guts?”. The ash-blond glanced over to his kouhai and frowned. “I have a feeling this isn't just a hypothetical question…”, Sugawara started and, upon being met with a simper from Hinata, thought the question over briefly before shrugging, “I guess I would've done my best to try to get my soulmate to like me. After all, you only get one soulmate, and you're supposedly destined to be together because you're a perfect match…”. “But”, frowned the small redhead, “Let's say you found out who your soulmate is before your soulmate-- who hates you --found out. What can you even _do_ in that situation? How do you tell them that they're your soulmate without-- I don't know-- without them, like, killing themselves?”. At this point Sugawara stopped walking and turned to face the middle blocker. “Hinata”, he started softly, “I promise I won't say a thing to anyone. Just tell me what happened.”

Hinata took a deep breath in, exhaling it in one long, shaky breath before exclaiming, “I just found out that Tsukishima is my soulmate!”. In an instant, Sugawara's expression dropped from something that had been unmistakably reassuring to a look that made it clear that Hinata couldn't have given him worse news. “Tsukishima…”, the ash-blond repeated, his mind reeling as he tried to visualize Hinata and Tsukishima as a couple. He shook his head; it was not an image he could conjure up easily. It was Sugawara's turn to exhale slowly. “Can I ask… how did you find this out?”, the third year asked as he tried to get his bearings once more. He listened intently as Hinata detailed what had happened mere hours before, and marvelled at how surprisingly intuitive the redhead’s actions were.

“Well”, Sugawara finally said after listening to Hinata’s story in full, “I still stand by my initial advice.” “Advice…?”, Hinata repeated, cocking his head slightly. Sugawara smiled broadly and nodded, “I still think you should try your best to get Tsukishima to like you for who you are. You only get one soulmate. Something out there must’ve thought that you two belong together.” Hinata nodded quickly before looking down and studying the ground. “But…”, he started quietly, pausing for a long moment before continuing, “...don’t you think I have some sort of _moral_ obligation to tell Tsukishima? After all, he and I both spent years wishing that we knew who our soulmate was. And, well, to be honest… I feel really, really bad about ignoring his messages for the last few days…”. Sugawara placed a reassuring hand on Hinata’s shoulder and laughed, “Well, if it’s bothering you that much, then you should probably try reaching out to him! Just… take it slow. Start by trying to talk to him about the people in his surroundings. Then try to ease him into the idea, like, ‘What if I’m shorter than you’, or ‘What if we have different levels of energy’, things like that. I’m sure, with time, he’ll come to the same realizations that you have. It’ll be okay. Just take it one day at a time.”

Eventually Hinata raised his gaze to meet that of the co-captain and, finally cracking a grin, exclaimed, “Thanks, senpai!”. “No problem, Hinata”, Sugawara smiled, retracting his hand to his side, “But next time, don’t go running off like that. You had everyone worried sick about you!” “Sorry”, blushed the redhead. Sugawara playfully tousled his hair before nodding back towards the school and laughing, “I’m not the one you’re gonna have to apologize to. Now, come on, let’s get back to the school and let Daichi get on with his lecture."

 

\---

 

“So this is where you last saw Tsukishima?”, Sugawara asked as he cupped his chin. Hinata nodded solemnly. Pointing to the corner directly in front of them, he said, “I was sitting over here. I took your advice and tried to reach out to him-- to apologize for giving him the silent treatment for the last few days. It took me a while to figure out what to write, but as soon as I finished writing it, I heard a gasp from over here” --again, Hinata gestured just slightly to the right of where the two stood-- “and when I looked up, Tsukishima was standing here looking back and forth between me and his arm. He ran through that door” --another gesture-- “before I could say anything.”

“Oh, boy”, sighed a disheartened Sugawara, “Well… we’d better start looking for him.” The two boys left the high school and surveyed the landscape around them. “Let’s split up”, the ash-blond suddenly suggested, “I’ll go search the perimeter of the school. You can go check the entrance. If you see anyone else, tell them where you’ve looked so we don’t wind up checking the same places. Hopefully he didn’t leave school grounds and we’ll be able to find him soon.” “B- but”, asked a panic-stricken Hinata, “...What if _I_ find him? What do I say?”. Sugawara appraised the young man before him before quickly shaking his head. “That I cannot answer for you. You two obviously need to talk-- I’m not the right person to decide what it is you talk about.” Hinata frowned deeply and mumbled “...okay”, and, with that, Sugawara took off jogging towards the gyms. “You can do it!”, the blond encouraged, “It’ll be okay!”. Somehow, Hinata didn’t feel so sure.

He slowly wandered down the pathway that marked the entrance to the school, though as he looked from side to side, into the clusters of trees that lined the sidewalk, something in him told him that he wasn’t looking in the right place. He paused for a moment, feeling torn between doing what he was told to do and what his gut was telling him; this struggle was only made worse by the fact that he wasn’t even sure that he _wanted_ to find Tsukishima. With a groan, the redhead relented, and dashed off into the thicket of trees to his right.

He wove through tree after tree, careful not to make too much noise as he went. It took a little while for him to start recognizing where he was, but once he was in a section of the forest that he’d begun to recognize, he slowed his pacing and mumbled, “...no-- it can’t be right. I’m definitely, _definitely_ wrong about this. He’s not--”.

Hinata stopped speaking as a small clearing came into view. There, less than a yard away from him, was the back of a head he recognized all too well, seated up against the exact same tree that Hinata himself had retreated to a mere two days prior. Suddenly, all Hinata’s anxieties about talking to the blonde melted away, and were replaced with the fears he’d unconsciously been holding back. Adrenaline surged through his body and he felt as if he might throw up.

“Tsukishima!”, the redhead cried, pushing himself just into the blonde’s view, “I finally found you! You scared the crap outta me!”. His eyes were growing hot, and though he did his best to stave off the tears, Hinata knew he was about to cry. “... _’scared’_ you?”, Tsukishima replied in clear disbelief. The very words sent stabbing pains through the redhead’s chest. “Of _course_ you scared me!”, Hinata exclaimed, pushing away the tears that had leaked from his left eye with the heel of his palm.

The redhead stepped closer still, stopping once he was directly in front of the boy he now knew to be his soulmate. It was only then that he realized that Tsukishima’s cheeks were flushed and tear-streaked as well. This somehow surprised Hinata; he’d expected Tsukishima to be angry or even disgusted about the news-- not _hurt._ But the look on the blonde’s face was one of unmistakable misery, and Hinata couldn’t help but want to fix it.

“Listen, Tsukishima, we need to talk”, the redhead said before dropping to his knees, which landed only an inch away from the blond. Tsukishima looked uncomfortable with this prospect, but Hinata was determined to try to make things right.

As he knelt there, trying desperately to think of what he could possibly say, Sugawara’s words echoed in his head. _‘I can do it’,_ Hinata assured himself, appropriating his senpai’s words as his own mantra, _‘It’ll be okay!’._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi everyone! Sorry this update took so long, but S&C and I thank you for the continued kudos/comments/all around love <3  
> Next update soon~~~


	24. Heartbeat

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hinata tries to talk to Tsukishima.

Hinata anxiously pulled at the grass in front of him. He wasn't entirely sure  _ how  _ he was going to talk to Tsukishima, but he knew he needed to. However… the words just wouldn't seem to come. Each time he moved to speak, tears immediately flooded his eyes, forcing him to back down once more. It was only after the two had remained quiet for so long that the silence had become physically painful that, through his tears, Hinata Shōyō choked out, “Ts- Tsukishima, I'm so sorry that you had to find out like this!”. The blonde's silent gaze remained transfixed on a nonspecific blade of grass to his right; undeterred, Hinata pressed on, in spite of the sobs that had begun bursting through his words. “And I'm s- sorry that I s- shut you out these last few days. I just-- I found out on Friday while we were on our jog, w- which is why--” “...Why you ran away…”, the blond mumbled, still avoiding eye contact with Hinata. “Y- yeah…”, Hinata nodded, his cheeks flushing even brighter, “...I was actually reaching out tonight to try to tell you what I found out… I felt really bad, both for keeping you in the dark and from keeping the truth from you.”

Hinata bit his lip and wiped the tears from his cheeks. More soon replaced them, but he wiped those away, too. He looked to Tsukishima in the hopes that the blonde would say anything-- anything at all.

It was several tense moments before the blond finally snapped, “What do you  _ want,  _ Hinata?”. “What do I--”, Hinata repeated so quietly it was almost as if he was mouthing the words. “Yeah”, scoffed Kei, “Why are you  _ here?”.  _ “Why am I--”, the redhead started, chest aching as he repeated his soulmate’s words once more, “Tsukishima, I’m your soulma--”. “Stop”, the blond said irritably, looking so far in the opposite direction of Hinata that he was almost craning his neck, “Don’t even say it. Look-- I get it. You feel obligated to be here or whatever. Well, I’m fine. You can go back, tell everyone I’m fine and I’ll be back in a few minutes. I don’t need you checking up on me.” “B- but, Tsukishima--”, the redhead tried to argue once more, only to be cut off again by Kei, whose irritation was only mounting. “Just  _ go”,  _ he groaned, “We both know that you don’t want to be here and I don’t want you here. The universe made a mistake. That’s it.”

Hinata was experiencing a maelstrom of emotions. He’d been so worried about Tsukishima, so scared that the blond somehow wouldn’t be okay. He had felt so guilty for withholding what he knew and for keeping the blond in the dark. He’d felt alone and lost without his soulmate to turn to. And now, with the words that Kei was nearly shouting at him, he was even more conflicted. He was confused. He was hurt. He felt rejected. There was a piece of him that was angry that the blond was reacting this way, and an even larger piece of him that was truly and sincerely heartbroken;  _ would he really have to spend the rest of his life without having another all-night conversation with his soulmate? _

The redhead slowly rose to his feet and moved to leave, though he only managed to take three steps away from Tsukishima before he ran back. As he drew in a deep breath to begin attempting to explain himself to the blond once more, Hinata was shocked to find that Tsukishima’s face was tear-stained once more. Hinata slowly sunk to his knees again as he tried to understand what, exactly, was going on.

“Tsukishima…”, Hinata started, “Why would you think I don’t want to be here? I mean, you’re not  _ just  _ my soulmate-- you’re my teammate and my friend! I’d be here for you no matter what!”. Tsukishima hugged his knees to him and buried his face in his arms, where he then mumbled something wholly inaudible to Hinata. “I-- I’m sorry, what?”, the redhead asked. Tsukishima glanced up briefly, if only to glare at Hinata, before repeating himself. Again, his words were all but completely indiscernible. “I’m sorry, Tsukishima, I don’t--” “Because”, the blonde snapped, lifting his head from where it had rested,  _ “There’s no reason  _ **_anyone_ ** _ would want to be my soulmate!”. _

“W- what?”, Hinata choked out hoarsely, “Tsukishima, what are you t--”. “Oh,  _ come on”,  _ the blond practically laughed, “Enough with this game. Do you honestly think I don’t  _ know  _ who I am? Trust me, Hinata, I am  _ painfully aware  _ of what makes me, me. And those things that make me, me aren’t exactly the things that people stay up dreaming about at night when they’re thinking about how perfect their life with their soulmate is going to be. No one wants someone like me as their soulmate.  _ Especially  _ not somebody like you.”

Hinata hung his head for a moment, and a smug look flickered across Kei’s face. Sure, this was a victory for him; after all, he  _ was  _ right. But was it a victory he really wanted? His train of thought was interrupted when he realized that the redhead’s shoulders were quaking. 

“You’re wrong…”, Hinata mumbled, so quietly at first that Tsukishima wasn’t even really sure that he’d said anything at all. After a moment the smaller boy lifted his head to look the blond directly in the eye. “You’re wrong”, he declared clearly, tears still streaming from his eyes as he spoke, though his voice did not waver, “ **I** want you as my soulmate.”

Tsukishima looked away from Hinata; he could not handle the intensity of the redhead’s gaze. All he could say in response was, “Tch”. 

“Tch?!”, Hinata exclaimed, almost enraged by this smallest of utterances, “Tch?! Tsukishima, I mean what I’ve been saying these past few weeks-- I  _ love  _ you! And it’s not just because I’m ‘supposed to’, either!”. “What do you mean, ‘supposed to’?”, the blond asked sullenly. He didn’t want any part of this conversation, but Hinata certainly had a way of grabbing his attention. “W- well, y- you know…”, the redhead stammered, “Because… because we’re soulmates and everything…?”. Kei felt his face flush. “O-oh”, he replied in as disinterested a manner as he could muster. 

The rhythm of their conversation had gotten thrown off, but Hinata, ever determined to try to convince his soulmate that things could work out, pressed on relentlessly. “I’ve liked the real you-- the you I know at school-- for a while too now!”. “What are you going on about?”, groaned Kei, his interest in the conversation waning once more.

At this, several shades of red and pink blossomed across Hinata’s face. “I-- I, uh-- Well, I--”, he stammered, unable to string together enough words to form a coherent sentence. Tsukishima shook his head and rolled his eyes. “You won’t have to make up excuses if you stop lying”, the blond hummed nonchalantly. “L- l- lying?!”, Hinata sputtered. He leaned forward and, once again, looked Tsukishima in the eyes, “I’m not  _ lying!  _ Ask anyone! Ask Sugawara!”. “Sugawara…?”, Kei repeated quietly. “I’ve liked you since we all joined the team! I  _ really  _ liked you since you started tutoring me! I think you’re really cute, and smart, and handsome, and--” “You just commented on my appearance twice”, interjected Tsukishima. “Well that’s because I like it!”, roared the redhead, his face so red that Kei was almost beginning to worry. “My point is”, Hinata continued, “I like  _ both  _ of you-- the you I know in real life, and the you I’ve been talking to for all these years!”.

Again the blond scoffed, “So you’re trying to tell me that you actually like  _ me?”.  _ Kei couldn’t believe what he was hearing-- everything sounded so surreal to him. At this, Hinata practically yelled, “YES! That’s what I’ve been telling you this entire time!”  

Kei felt lightheaded with the overwhelming surge of new information crashing down on him. “I...I guess a lot of this is starting to make sense isn’t it?”, the blonde muttered quietly, more to himself than anything, “I really don’t understand how this all started but I guess neither of us had much of a choice to begin with.” Kei could feel tears prick his eyes once again. “I’ve liked you too, but then again, I don’t really know how anyone _ couldn’t _ . You’re always just so happy, and you look like the pure embodiment of the sun”. 

Kei sighed, pausing for a moment, before adding, “...and to be honest, I’m jealous of you.”  Of all of the surprising things Tsukishima had just said, this had taken Hinata aback the most, “ _ Jealous?”,  _ he repeated incredulously,  _ “You?!  _ Jealous of  _ me?”. _  Kei couldn’t help but laugh, “Of course I am! Have you seen yourself? You always work so hard to get what you want. Watching you perform on the court always leaves me awestruck, even if I never want to admit it. You also make friends like it’s the easiest thing in the world for you. I wish I could do that; besides Yamaguchi, I don’t know if I’ve ever had a true friend.” At this, Hinata couldn’t help but grin. “Well, I don’t know about you”, the redhead smiled, “But  _ I  _ consider us to be friends, even when you are being grumpy or yelling at me. ...man. For being in class four, you definitely can be pretty dense sometimes!”.

Tsukishima felt as if his whole insides were shaking, but, with the slightest laugh, he forced himself to reply, “At this point, I would hope that you consider us to be a little bit more than friends, right?”. Hinata gently returned his smile. “Only if it’s okay with you.”

“W-well”, stammered Tsukishima, his heart beating so hard that he could scarcely focus on other things, “I- I mean, I  _ did  _ say that I-- I lo-- I--”. 

Hinata couldn’t help himself. He knew what the blonde was trying to say: Tsukishima had, after all, said that he loves Hinata back when they were still sending each other anonymous messages through their skin. But in that moment, the redhead was so caught up in how cute Tsukishima was as he tried to grapple with his feelings that he did the only thing he could possibly think to do: he leaned in and kissed the blonde.

“H- H- HEY!”, Tsukishima gasped as soon as Hinata sat back on his heels. “What?”, grinned Hinata cheekily, “I thought you were saying it was okay…?”. “It-- it  _ is, dumbass!  _ But I wasn’t ready for  **that!** I was so caught up in other things that  _ you made me miss my first kiss!”.  _ “It’s okay”, Hinata retorted with a devilish grin, “I’d be willing to do a do over.” 

Amid a series of grumbled protests, Hinata slipped his arms behind the blond, so closely that his knuckles rested against the tree trunk. Tsukishima, still protesting, moved his arms to Hinata’s shoulders, and allowed his lips to still once his eyes met those of the man he now knew to be his soulmate. Hinata allowed his eyes to flutter shut and Kei soon found the urge to follow suit too strong to resist, and soon he felt the gentle warmth of Hinata’s lips pressed against his. A warm tingle seemed to spread throughout his whole body originating from his heart, which was beating so fast that the blond was beginning to worry that it might actually burst.

Their kiss only lasted a couple of seconds, but to Tsukishima, it could’ve been years. Those few seconds stretched to infinity as he tried to wrap his head around the fact that he was there, actually  _ kissing  _ Hinata Shōyō. 

As the two pulled away, their faces flushed, a breathy giggle exchanged amongst them, a cheery voice from a few feet away chimed, “You see? I told you there was nothing to worry about!”. “Shut up, Daichi! They’re gonna hear you!”. 

Tsukishima buried his face in his hands, but Hinata couldn’t help but beam.

And why shouldn’t he? 

He just shared his first ever kiss with the person he’d loved for nearly all his life.  ♥

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OHOHOHOHO~~~♥  
> It happened! They did it! They kissed! The moment you've all been waiting for!!!  
> The next chapter should be soon, though, with this, we are headed towards the end :)  
> Thank you all for your kind words and kudos and everything ♥♥♥  
> -Missicle


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